III. Concluding recommendations of the Committee on Economic, Social and

Cultural Rights 345–459 72

I. Introduction

1. The Slovak Republic is a State party to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights signed on behalf of
the Czechoslovak
Socialist Republic on 7 October 1968. As a legal successor to the Czech and
Slovak Federal Republic (the former
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic/Czechoslovak
Republic), the Slovak Republic became a State party to the Covenant on 28 May
1993 with
retroactive effect from 1 January 1993.

2. The Slovak Republic, as a State party to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, submits the Committee
on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights reports on the implementation of the Covenant in accordance
with its articles 16 and 17.
Its initial report was submitted in 2001
(E/1990/5/Add.49).

3. The Slovak Republic hereby presents its second periodic report under the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights. The present
report gives information on measures taken and the progress achieved in the
period of 2002 to 2008 in the implementation
of the rights recognized in the
Covenant.

4. The present report was drawn up by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the
Slovak Republic (“Ministry of Foreign Affairs”)
in cooperation with
the sectors concerned, based on the general guidelines of the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
containing the recommendations on the
content and form of individual periodic reports (E/C.12/1991/1), and in
conformity with concrete
recommendations from final observations made by the
Committee on 29 November 2002 based on the consideration of the initial report
of the Slovak Republic (E/C.12/1/Add.81).

II. Special provisions

Article 2

Guarantee of rights without discrimination

5. The Slovak Republic submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination its sixth, seventh and eighth periodic
reports under the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in June
2008. The report elaborates in detail
on the measures taken to eliminate all
forms of discrimination within the territory of the Slovak Republic.

6. Act No. 365/2004 Coll. on equal treatment in certain areas and on the
protection against discrimination and on amending and supplementing
other
relevant acts (“Antidiscrimination Act”) was approved by the
National Council of the Slovak Republic on 20 May 2004 with effect from 1 July
2004. The Antidiscrimination Act was drafted and adopted on the basis of
secondary sources of law of the European Communities with due regard to the fact
that equality
of all persons before the law and prohibition of discrimination
laid down in international legal instruments of the United Nations
and in the
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
are among the key principles of the rule
of law and are inextricably engrained
in any democratic legal order. Equality before the law is the key premise
recognized by all
legal systems that adhere to human rights and freedoms.

7. Since “antidiscrimination” provisions were comprised in a
number of legal acts even prior to the adoption of the Antidiscrimination Act,
the passage of the act made it necessary to amend twenty substantively related
legal texts (see annex I, articles II to XXII of
the Antidiscrimination Act).

8. The purpose of the Antidiscrimination Act is to provide the entities under
the law adequate protection against all forms of discrimination with the aim of
ensuring the right
of the victims to seek adequate and effective judicial
protection, including compensation for material and non-pecuniary damage.
The
act specifies in greater detail the equality and non-discrimination provisions
enshrined in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic
(“Constitution”) and in relevant international treaties binding on
the Slovak Republic. The Antidiscrimination Act lays down the general
prohibition of discrimination in the areas of social security, health care,
provision of services and goods,
education (para. 5), in labour law
relationships and in similar legal relationships (para. 6).

9. The only specialized institution in the Slovak Republic that fulfils the
role of overseeing compliance with the principle of equal
treatment laid down in
the Antidiscrimination Act is the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights.

10. The initial Antidiscrimination Act introduced the possibility, inter
alia, of adopting temporary special measures (para. 8 (8)) to compensate for the
disadvantages
linked with racial or ethnic origin. This provision was included
on the basis of article 5 of Directive
2000/43/EC[1] empowering the Member
States to take “positive action”.

11. The above provision (para. 8 (8)) of the initial Antidiscrimination Act)
was challenged by a motion filed on 14 October 2004 with the Constitutional
Court of the Slovak Republic, alleging violation of
article 125 (1) (a) of the
Constitution of the Slovak Republic. The aforesaid provision of the
Antidiscrimination Act was worded as follows: “With a view to ensuring
full equality in practice and compliance with the principle of equal treatment,
specific positive actions to prevent disadvantages linked to racial or ethnic
origin may be adopted.” The Constitutional Court
found the provision in
question to be in conflict with article 1 (1) and article 12 (1), first
sentence, and (2) of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court held that the
challenged provision did not stipulate the provisional applicability of such
measures, did
not outline the methods for achieving the above objective, and did
not specify the areas in which temporary special measures may
be adopted or the
criteria for defining their content. As from the date of the publication of the
finding of the Constitutional Court
in the Collection of Laws of the Slovak
Republic,[2] the provision in question
ceased to be in effect and became null and void upon the expiry of the six-month
time limit.

12. The Antidiscrimination Act was
amended[3] in the light of formal
communications from the Commission of the European Communities concerning
incomplete and incorrect transposition
of Council Directive 2000/43/EC and
Council Directive 2000/78/EC.[4]

13. Its next amendment[5] was made
for a number of reasons. The main reason was the obligation of the Member States
set out in article 17 of Council Directive
2004/113/EC[6] to transpose the
directive into their national legislations by 21 December 2007. The main purpose
of this particular amendment was
to broaden protection against discrimination.
To this end, the amendment included also changes in the structure of the act
that made
it necessary to modify several of its provisions. These changes
contributed to increasing the legal certainty.

14. The latest amendment to the Antidiscrimination Act strengthened the role
of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights; it was granted the competence to
conduct independent inquiries
into allegations of discrimination, to prepare and
publish reports and recommendations concerning discrimination issues, and to
monitor
the reports submitted to the Centre by State authorities in order to
ascertain whether the reasons for applying temporary special
measures still
exist.

15. Moreover, the Antidiscrimination Act introduced the definitions of
various forms of discrimination such as: direct discrimination, indirect
discrimination, harassment
and victimisation including incitement or an
instruction to discriminate, and the definition of discrimination of legal
persons stipulating
(para. 2 (a) (9)) that a legal person may be deemed to be a
victim of discrimination if the principle of equal treatment has been
violated
with regard to its members, associates, shareholders, members of its bodies,
employees, persons acting on its behalf or
persons on behalf of whom the legal
person is acting (para. 2 (1)).

16. The amendment to the Antidiscrimination
Act[7] introduced the definition of
sexual harassment (para. 2 (5)) and expanded the grounds of discrimination to
cover all the areas falling
under the substantive scope of the act, i.e. not
only labour law and similar legal relationships, but also social security,
health
care, provision of goods and services, and education (para. 2 (a)
(11)).

17. Under the initial Antidiscrimination Act it was possible to waive the
application of the equal treatment principle if “the application of this
principle in a concrete
case was or could be in conflict with the measures taken
under specific legislation.” In contrast, the current legislation
effective from 1 April 2008 provides that “everyone is obliged to respect
the principle of equal treatment in the area of labour
law and similar legal
relationships, social security, health care, provision of goods and services and
in education” (para.
3 (1)).

18. The amendment to the Antidiscrimination
Act[8] extended its application to the
citizens of the member States of the European Union, the citizens of the
contracting parties to the
Agreement on the European Economic Area and of the
Swiss Confederation, and to stateless persons and their family members (para.
4
(1)).

19. The amended Antidiscrimination
Act[9] introduced the so-called
temporary special measures (para. 8) that may be adopted in case of a
demonstrable inequality. The aim of
these measures, which must be appropriate
and necessary to achieve the specified objective, is to reduce or eliminate
these inequalities.
The Act also defines the categories of entities that are
entitled to benefit from such provisional measures, setting out these measures
in a demonstrative manner. Temporary special measures can be adopted only in the
areas that are specified in the Antidiscrimination Act and the State
administration authorities are obliged to lift them as soon as their purpose has
been achieved. Moreover, the right
to apply temporary special measures is
restricted only to the areas set out in the Antidiscrimination Act, and only for
the time that is necessary to eliminate the inequality that led to their
adoption.

20. The provisions of the Antidiscrimination Act relating to temporary
special measures were drafted in line with the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the
International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination; article 2 (2) of the Convention urges the States
parties to take special and concrete measures to ensure the full and equal
enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Moreover,
the legislation on
temporary special measures takes due regard of relevant constitutional
provisions and of the finding of the Constitutional
Court concerning the already
repealed paragraph 8 (8) that provided for special measures.

Development cooperation

21. The Slovak Republic is an active member of the donor community. It
belongs among the most developed countries of the world grouped
within the
European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Slovakia as the emerging donor assumes its
share of responsibility for
addressing global problems such as poverty, deadly diseases, famine or
environmental devastation. Its
unique experience with the transformation of
society and transition to market economy gives it a comparative advantage over
the traditional
donors.

22. The national coordinator for the provision of official development
assistance of the Slovak Republic is the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Since
2003, Slovakia has implemented bilateral programmes and projects in the
developing countries based on the Medium-Term
Strategy for Official Development
Assistance of the Slovak Republic for 2003–2008. The practical outcome of
the activities
to date is 230 implemented development projects representing a
total value of SKK 700 million.

24. Specific sectoral priorities defined for programme countries are: the
development of civil society, social recovery and regional
development,
reconstruction and development of local infrastructure and assistance in the
integration into international structures
and organizations. In terms of
sectoral focus, the projects for project countries are mainly aimed at promoting
democratic institutions
and the market environment, technical and social
infrastructure, agriculture, food security, environmental protection and the use
of mineral raw materials.

25. In 2007, the Slovak Republic completed the building of its institutional
and legal system for the provision of official development
assistance. The
Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation was established on 1
January 2007 by decision of the minister
of foreign affairs. Slovakia provides
development assistance under Act No. 617/2007 Coll. on official development
assistance that
entered into effect on 1 February 2008.

26. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is preparing a new Medium-Term Strategy
for Official Development Assistance for 2009–2013
which will enhance the
effectiveness of the assistance.

27. Slovak non-governmental (development) organizations are significantly
represented among project-implementing entities. However,
the Slovak Republic
provides project support also to the business sector, State institutions and
local government authorities.

28. The total value of Slovak development assistance (ODA) in 2006 was SKK
1,638 million, representing a 0.01 per cent share of ODA/GNP
(gross national
product); in 2007, it reached the value of SKK 1,652 million, representing a
0.09 per cent share of ODA/GNP.

29. According to the act on official development assistance, ODA objectives
include the safeguarding of peace and security in the
world, especially through
strengthening democracy, the rule of law, human rights and good governance in
the developing countries.
The support provided in connection with the first
sectoral priority of Slovak Aid (i.e. the building of democratic institutions)
is channelled also to projects promoting human rights, including economic,
social and cultural rights. In the form of Slovak Aid
projects, Slovakia shares
the know-how it acquired in the process of transformation and reform with the
countries that currently
go through a similar process.

30. The Slovak Aid has implemented more than 60 projects since 2004 with the
aim of promoting democracy and human rights in such countries
as Afghanistan,
Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Montenegro,
Mozambique, Serbia and Ukraine with a total
value of USD 8 million.

Article 3

Equal rights of men and women

31. The key documents on gender equality in Slovak society are the National
Action Plan for Women in the Slovak Republic and the Policy
Document on Equal
Opportunities for Women and Men. The policy document identifies the tasks of the
State and of other actors in the
areas with the most pronounced gender
discrimination, and defines 31 measures and recommendations to be implemented
with active participation
of non-State entities.

32. The National Strategy for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence
against Women and in Family[10] was
adopted in 2004 with the aim of ensuring a coordinated and integrated
cooperation of all relevant actors in the prevention of
violence, in the
provision of timely and effective assistance, in an effective implementation of
applicable legislation, and in the
development of an adequate data base on
violence against women. To ensure a consistent implementation of the Strategy,
the Slovak
Government approved the National Action Plan for the Prevention and
Elimination of Violence against Women for 2005–2008. The
implementation of
the National Action Plan for the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against
Women was reviewed in 2007 and
2008, and a new action plan for 2009–2012
was under preparation in 2008. A new policy document on gender equality issues
—
the Gender Equality Strategy — will be prepared in 2008 as
well.

33. An important change that took place in the relevant period concerned
institutional arrangements for ensuring gender equality.
At the level of
Parliament (the National Council of the Slovak Republic), the gender equality
agenda was assigned to the Committee
on Human Rights and National Minorities
which, as a result, was transformed into the Committee on Human Rights, National
Minorities
and the Status of Women. In conformity with the rules of procedure,
the Commission on Equal Opportunities and on the Status of Women
in Society set
up within the Committee in 2002 played the role of advisory body to the
parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, National
Minorities and the Status of
Women. The task of the Commission was to review legislative proposals for their
compliance with gender
equality requirements and to address certain other issues
facing the society. After the 2006 parliamentary election, the
Commission’s
agenda was taken up by the Standing Commission on Gender
Equality and Equal Opportunities set up within the parliamentary Committee
on
Social Affairs and Housing.

34. At the level of government, the gender equality and equal treatment
agenda in the relevant period was assigned to the family and
gender policy
department of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak
Republic (“Ministry of Labour,
Social Affairs and Family”); the
position of the department within the ministry was strengthened in 2007 when it
became a gender
equality and equal opportunities department.

35. The Expert Group on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against
Women created within the Government Council on Crime Prevention
continued to
focus mainly on promoting and monitoring the National Action Plan for the
Prevention and Elimination of Violence against
Women in the period of
2005–2008.

36. The Slovak Government pledged in its Manifesto that it will promote
equality between women and men, which it considers to be an
important
prerequisite for strengthening democracy and implementation of human rights with
a view to fulfilling the commitments arising
from the Lisbon Strategy and from
international instruments. To this end, the Government ensured the creation of
institutional structures
necessary for respecting gender mainstreaming
requirements in all policies and decisions taken at all levels of governance of
the
society, including the creation of the Government Council on Gender Equality
in 2007. The tasks of the Council include the formulation
of measures aimed at
ensuring coordination of gender-equality activities of government ministries and
of other central State administration
authorities with a view to achieving a
synergy between these activities both in terms of their substantive content and
timetable.

Article 6

Right to work

Employment

37. Employment and unemployment trends in the Slovak Republic in the last 10
years were influenced by the on-going process of transformation
and economic
reform. Total employment reached a turning point in 2000 when the gradual
decrease in the number of workers that was
taking place since 1997 came to a
halt. In the 2001–2007 period, employment recorded a year-on-year growth
of between 1 per
cent and 3.8 per cent; as a result, the number of workers
increased by 2007 to more than 2,350 thousand persons. This represented
an
increment of more than 230 thousand persons compared with 2001.

38. However, in the situation of growing employment and falling unemployment,
Slovakia’s labour market continued to display
gender, age and regional
disparities. Certain sectors and regions experienced problems connected with
long-term unemployment and
with the mismatch between labour supply and labour
demand.

39. These imbalances have contributed to the lagging behind of Slovakia in
the fulfilment of Lisbon employment objectives that are
to be attained by 2010
– total employment rate of 70 per cent, employment rate of women of 60 per
cent, and employment rate
of older workers of 50 per cent. According to 2007
figures, total employment rate, employment rate of women and employment rate of
older persons were lower than targeted levels by 9.3, 6.9, and 14.4 percentage
points, respectively.

Table 1

Lisbon objectives and their fulfilment in the EU-27 and in the Slovak
Republic in 2007

Employment rate

Employment rate in %

EU objective for 2010

EU-27 average 2007

Slovakia 2007

Total

70 %

65.4

60.7 %

Women

60 %

58.3

53.1 %

Older workers

50 %

37.2

35.6 %

40. Employment continued to grow also in 2007 when the labour force sample
survey showed a 2.4 per cent year-on-year increase in the
number of workers.
Average total number of workers in 2007 attained the level of 2,357.3 thousand
persons, i.e. an increase of 55.9
thousand persons compared with 2006.

41. Employment growth was translated into the growth of total employment rate
of persons aged 15 to 64, which attained the average
level of 60.7 per cent and
recorded the year-on-year increase by 1.3 percentage points. The employment rate
increased for both men
(by 1.4 percentage points to 68.4 per cent) and women (by
1.2 percentage points to 53.1 per cent).

42. The highest employment rate of persons aged 15 to 64 has been
consistently recorded in the Bratislava Region (70.9 per cent in
2007). On the
other hand, the lowest employment rate of persons aged 15 to 64 was observed in
the Košice Region (52.8 per cent
in 2007). Compared with 2006, the
employment rate of persons aged 15 to 64 grew in all regions with the exception
of the Trenčín
region where the employment rate of persons aged 15
to 64 dropped by 0.5 percentage points.

Unemployment

43. Unemployment data also corroborate the positive trends in the development
of the labour market. During the 2001–2007 period,
the number of
unemployed persons kept falling almost continuously. In 2007, the number of
unemployed persons dropped for the first
time in the history of the Slovak
Republic below the level of 300 thousand persons, a fall by more than 210
thousand persons compared
to 2001. This development was reflected also in the
unemployment rate, which fell from 19.2 per cent in 2001 to 11 per cent in 2007.
This represented an average year-on-year decrease by 1.4 per cent over the
eight-year period.

44. According to the ascertained data, average registered unemployment rate
in 2007 was 8.43 per cent, its lowest level since 1991.
By the end of April
2008, it was down to 7.54 per cent.

45. The average number of unemployed persons in 2007 was 291.9 thousand, its
lowest level since 1996. Compared with the previous year,
unemployment went down
by 61.5 thousand persons. The 17.4 per cent year-on-year decrease in
unemployment was reflected in the falling
average unemployment rate (by 2.3
percentage points year-on-year), which dropped to the level of 11 per cent. Its
average level in
2007 was the lowest since 1999.

46. The specific unemployment rate of young persons (aged 15–24)
attained the level of 20.1 per cent, and was 6.5 percentage
point lower than in
2006 and 9.1 percentage point higher than was the average for the Slovak
Republic as a whole (in 2006, this difference
was 13.3 percentage points).

47. The specific unemployment rate of older persons (aged 55–64)
attained the level of 8.2 per cent and was 1.6-percentage point
lower than in
2006 and 2.8 percentage point lower than the average for the Slovak Republic (in
2006, this difference was 3.5 percentage
points).

48. The number of unemployed persons fell in all the regions, mostly in the
Trnava Region (by 26.4 per cent). The significant fall
in unemployment in the
regions of eastern Slovakia (Prešov and Košice), which consistently
display an above-average level
of unemployment, is a positive fact.

49. On the negative side, long-term unemployment continued to represent a
persistently high share even if the number of the long-term
unemployed in
absolute terms and their share in the total number of unemployed persons posted
a year-on-year decrease. According
to sample labour force surveys, persons
unemployed for more than 1 year accounted for 70.9 per cent of the total number
of unemployed
persons. Their share dropped by 2.2 percentage points year-on-year
(from 73.1 per cent in 2006). In absolute terms, the number of
the long-term
unemployed dropped year-on-year by 50.3 thousand persons; the fall in the number
of the long-term unemployed (by 19.9
per cent) showed higher dynamics than the
fall in average unemployment (by 17.2 per cent).

50. The evolution of unemployment measured by the length of unemployment
shows the persisting problem of finding work especially for
persons that had
been out of work for more than two years. In 2007, they accounted for 80.9 per
cent of the total average number
of persons unemployed for more than one year
(compared with 79 per cent in 2006).

51. As a result of the drop in the absolute number of the long-term
unemployed, a moderate improvement was observed in the long-term
unemployment
rate, which reached the level of 7.8 per cent and was 1.9-percentage point lower
than in the previous year.

Legal framework

52. According to article 35 (l) of the Constitution, everyone has the right
to freely choose his or her profession and appropriate training, and the right
to conduct entrepreneurial
or other gainful activity.

53. The rights and obligations arising from employment relationships must not
be contrary to the accepted principles of morality.
No one may abuse these
rights and obligations to the detriment of the other party to the employment
relationship or of fellow employees.
No one may be persecuted or suffer any
prejudice in his/her employment relationship at the workplace for having lodged
a complaint,
an action, or a motion to initiate criminal proceedings against
another employee or the employer.

54. All employees have the right to lodge a complaint with their employer in
connection with a breach of the principle of equal treatment.
The employer is
obliged to reply to the employee’s complaint without unreasonable delay,
to ensure the correction, to discontinue
the challenged practice and to remedy
its consequences.

55. Legal relationships established in the performance of civil service are
governed by Act No. 312/2001 Coll. on civil service and
on amending and
supplementing other relevant acts as amended (“civil service act”).
According to paragraph 3 of the civil
service act, all citizens of the Slovak
Republic and citizens of other member States of the European Union have the
right to enter
the civil service on the basis of fair and just selection
proceedings, provided they meet the requirements set out in the civil service
act and in other relevant legal provisions.

56. The restrictions related to the citizenship of civil servants emanate
from the specific function of the civil service and from
the activities involved
in the performance of civil service.

57. Basic labour law instrument — the Labour
Code[11] — provides in article
VI of its Basic Principles that women and men are entitled to equal treatment
with regard to access to
employment, remuneration and promotion, vocational
training and working conditions. Women are guaranteed working conditions that
enable them to participate in the working process, while taking account of their
physiological characteristics and of the social
function of motherhood, and of
their family obligations in the upbringing and care of children.

58. The amendment to Act No. 5/2004 Coll. on employment services and on
amending and supplementing other relevant acts as amended
(“act on
employment services”) that entered into effect on 1 May 2008 introduced a
new definition of the right of access
to employment – as the right of a
person who wants to work, is capable of working and looks for work. The right of
access to
employment includes the right to services provided with the aim to
assist in and facilitate the entry of citizens on the labour market,
and to
assist in and promote the entry to and the staying on the labour market for
disadvantaged job seekers during a period of at
least six consecutive calendar
months.

59. The legislative framework for employment services is created by the
employment services act, according to which these services
are equally available
to all persons.

60. The offices of labour, social affairs and family and their branches
provide free employment services, including assistance to
labour market
participants in search of jobs, changing jobs, assistance in filling job
vacancies and support for job creation, education
and training for labour
market, and counselling provided in the framework of active labour market
measures with special focus on
employing disadvantaged job seekers.

61. The assistance provided to job seekers and job applicants in the
framework of employment services respects the principle of equal
treatment and a
client-oriented approach (first-contact services, early identification of
individual needs of job seekers).

62. Where possible, the offices provide vocational guidance and counselling
directly at schools or through their information and counselling
centres created
within every office on the basis of a nation-wide project with the aim of
providing specialized counselling services
to clients – i.e. students of
primary and secondary schools, juveniles, persons interested in vocational
guidance and other
citizens.

63. The amended act on employment services broadens the competences of
employment services, with focus on speeding up the jobseeker
registration
procedure.

• A new position of “job agents” was created within the
offices of labour, social affairs and family with the aim
of increasing the
flexibility of jobseeker placement

• The use is made of the services of legal and natural persons that
provide intensive assistance aimed at labour market entry
and retention, thus
increasing the flexibility of jobseeker placement

• The quality of employment services provided by non-State entities
(temporary employment agencies, supported employment agencies
and job placement
entities providing paid services) is increased through the introduction of
stricter education requirements for
the providers of these services (higher
education of at least a bachelor level)

• Offices of labour, social affairs and family are free to decide about
the frequency of visits to the office; jobseekers are
obliged to actively look
for work and to give proof of their effort to the office at least once in a
calendar month

• Offices of labour, social affairs and family have the obligation to
offer jobseekers suitable employment or participation
in active labour market
measures at least once in a calendar month

• A free-of-charge provision of services to jobseekers by private
employment agencies was introduced in the area of paid employment
services in
line with the International Labour Organization’s Private Employment
Agencies Convention No. 181 of 1997

Employment of aliens

64. The employment services act gives the citizens of the member States of
the European Union, of the European Economic Area and of
the Swiss Confederation
and their family members the same legal status in legal relationships referred
to in the act as to the citizens
of the Slovak Republic.

65. The employment services act stipulates that the alien who is a party to a
legal relationship established pursuant to the act and
holds a work permit and a
temporary residence permit for employment purposes has the same legal status as
a citizen of the Slovak
Republic. Work permits are issued to aliens in
accordance with binding legal provisions of the Slovak Republic without
difference
of their citizenship.

66. The amendment to the employment services act extended the length of a
work permit to 2 years and its repeated prolongation also
by two years, thus
aligning the issuance of work permits with the issuance of temporary residence
permits for employment purposes.

Employment of persons with disabilities

67. According to the employment services act, persons with disabilities
belong among persons enjoying enhanced support and assistance
in connection with
their employability and employment. This enhanced attention is witnessed by the
fact that while the proportion
of persons with disabilities in total registered
unemployment at the end of 2001 was 5.5 per cent, by the end of 2007 it was down
to only 3.7 per cent.

68. The urgent need to modify strategic approaches with a view to mobilising
inactive human resources and supporting employment of
persons with disabilities
is evident also in the light of the emerging problem of labour shortages due to
changes in the demographic
situation, and the increased risk of poverty among
persons with disabilities. The need to boost the employment of persons with
disabilities
thus creates the pressure for the introduction of a broad range of
measures promoting professional and social integration of persons
with
disabilities; this approach is enshrined also in the European Equal
Opportunities Strategy whose key pillars include the access
of disabled persons
to the labour market, their employment, and keeping a job. These measures
include an unrestricted possibility
of combining entitlement to an invalidity
pension with the right to receive income from work.

69. The system of support for and assistance to persons with disabilities on
the labour market is implemented through specific instruments
of active measures
targeting this category of persons defined in the employment services act.
Moreover, the act introduces the instruments
of mandatory (directive) nature for
employers aimed at promoting the employment of persons with disabilities (such
as setting mandatory
proportions of employees with disabilities, the so-called
quota system, or alternative fulfilment of this obligation, i.e. by means
of
placing orders to sheltered workshops and the payment of contributions, as
described below).

70. The amended act on employment services introduced a comprehensive
revision of the system of incentives for employing persons with
disabilities.
The revision of the instruments used in active labour market measures was
undertaken mainly with the aim of removing
barriers to the creation of new jobs
and ensuring the sustainability of jobs created for persons with disabilities.
The new legal
framework was introduced to:

• Promote the employment of persons with disabilities – the
creation of jobs for persons with disabilities in sheltered
workshops or
sheltered workplaces based on the grants for setting up sheltered workshops or
sheltered workplaces; grants for persons
with disabilities running a business or
working as self-employed persons

• Promote the sustainability of jobs for persons with disabilities
– maintenance of and support for the already existing
jobs based on the
grants for work assistants and grants for the reimbursement of operating costs
of sheltered workshops or sheltered
workplaces and for the reimbursement of
commuting costs of employees

71. Because of the many disadvantages faced by disabled persons on the labour
market (their health handicap being often accompanied
by low educational
attainment, lack of adequate qualification and key skills), the amended
employment services act introduced new
innovative measures (active labour market
policy instruments) in order to promote labour market integration of the
disabled such
as:

• Training of persons with disabilities for labour market
participation, including initial training and vocational training
for persons
with disabilities aimed at improving and promoting their labour market
integration.

• Grant for the maintenance of jobs for persons with disabilities paid
to employers with the aim of ensuring the sustainability
of jobs for persons
with disabilities.

• Grant for the modernization and technological improvements of the
equipment of sheltered workshops and sheltered workplaces
made with the aim of
encouraging investment into modernisation and technological improvements of the
equipment of sheltered workshops
and sheltered workplaces. The objective of
these measures is to create favourable conditions for ensuring sustainability of
jobs
created for persons with disabilities.

72. The revision covered also the measures of mandatory nature. They included
a new option for meeting the obligation of employing
a certain proportion of
persons with disabilities; it consists in the placing of orders and/or
contracting products or services,
and in the payment of contributions by the
employers who fail to meet mandatory quota of employees with disabilities. The
aim of
this alternative option is to encourage employers to give preference to
the placement of orders with or contracting products and
services from sheltered
workshops or sheltered workplaces over the payment of contributions for the
failure to meet mandatory quotas
of employees with disabilities; it makes it
possible to combine these two types of alternative fulfilment of mandatory quota
of employees
with disabilities.

Article 7

Fair and satisfactory working conditions

Remuneration

73. Minimum wage is guaranteed by Minimum Wage Act No. 663/2007
Coll.[12] This act applies to all
employees in the economy of the Slovak Republic and sets the legal framework
guaranteeing minimum wage to
persons working on the basis of employment
contracts or other work arrangements. The act lays down the rules of bargaining
between
employers’ and employees’ representatives (“social
partners”) on the amount of the minimum wage. In the process
of
bargaining, social partners take due regard of the overall economic and social
situation in the Slovak Republic in two consecutive
years that preceded the
calendar year for which the minimum wage is proposed. The account is taken, in
particular, of the evolution
of:

(a) Consumer prices;

(b) Employment;

(c) Average monthly wages in the economy of the Slovak Republic;

(d) The subsistence minimum.

74. Moreover, the act lays down the mechanism for calculating the amount of
minimum monthly wage if even after repeated bargaining
the social partners and
Slovak government representatives fail to reach an agreement on adjustment to
the amount of minimum monthly
wage during deliberations of the supreme
tripartite body,[13] the Economic
and Social Council of the Slovak Republic (“Council”). The amounts
of minimum monthly wage and of minimum
hourly wage in 2008 were set at SKK 8,100
and SKK 46.60, respectively, until the fixing of a new minimum wage. The act
stipulates
that new minimum monthly and hourly wages will be determined by a
regulation of the Slovak Government, always with effect from 1
January of the
calendar year.

75. The social partners launch the process of bargaining on the amount of
minimum monthly wage for the next calendar year not later
than on 1 April. If
social partners agree on adjustments to the minimum monthly wage by 15 July,
they notify of this agreed amount
the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and
Family, which subsequently draws up a proposal for a government regulation on
fixing the
amount of minimum wage at the level agreed on by social partners, and
submits it to the Government for deliberation. If no agreement
on the amount of
minimum wage is reached, the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family draws
up a proposal on adjusting the
amount of minimum monthly wage and submits it for
government’s deliberations not later than by 31 July. The deliberations of
the council represent the last opportunity for social partners and the
government to reach the agreement on the amount of minimum
wage. If no agreement
on the amount of minimum wage is reached by 31 August, the ministry prepares a
draft government regulation
fixing the amount of minimum wage, calculated in
accordance with the mechanism laid down by law. The council examines the
proposal
for a government regulation and submits it to the Government for
deliberation not later than by 15 September.

Table 2

Evolution of minimum wage and of average nominal wage according to the
statistical office and the minimum wage to average wage ratio
for relevant years
in gross and net terms

Indicator/Year

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

Minimum wage – “gross” (MWG)

6 080

6 500

6 900

7 600

8 100

Minimum wage – “net” (MWN)

5 095

5 629

5 975

6 581

7 014

Average wage – “gross” (AWG)

15 825

17 274

18 761

20 146

22 060*

Average wage – “net” (AWN)

12 380

13 509

14 569

15 644

17 032

MWG/AWG ratio, in %

38.42

37.63

36.78

37.72

36.72

MWN/AWN ratio, in %

41.16

41.67

41.01

42.07

41.18

* Data from the Statistical Office forecast of June 2008.

Safety and health at work

76. The area of safety and health at work is one of the most important areas
of social policy. The Slovak legislation governing this
area is in conformity
with the directives of the European Union and Conventions of the International
Labour Organization. The field
of work safety and health in the Slovak Republic
is regulated by an extensive body of legal regulations and other work safety and
health rules that underwent several
amendments.[14]

77. General rules of prevention and basic preconditions for safety and health
at work and for the elimination of risks and factors
underlying the occurrence
of work injuries, occupational diseases and other work-related health damage are
laid down in Act No. 124/2006
Coll. on work safety and health and on amending
and supplementing other relevant acts as amended.

78. Certain specific requirements concerning the creation of working
conditions by employers are laid down in Act No. 355/2007 Coll.
on the
protection, promotion and improvement of public health and on amending and
supplementing other relevant acts as amended (“public
health act”),
which constitutes an effective instrument for the creation and promotion of
healthy living conditions and healthy
working conditions.

79. Specific work safety and health requirements for mining activities are
laid down in Act No. 51/1988 Coll. on mining, explosives
and State mining
administration as amended (“mining act”), Government Regulation No.
117/2002 Coll. on minimum health
and safety requirements for employees in the
mining sector and in the extraction of unlisted minerals, and other legal
regulations.[15]

81. The implementation of work safety and health legislation and of
regulations on the safety of technical equipment on the part of
employers and
the implementation of labour law regulations, especially those governing the
creation, alteration and termination of
employment relationships, working
conditions of employees, wage regulations and commitments arising from
collective agreements, are
overseen by labour inspection bodies in accordance
with Act No. 125/2006 Coll. on labour inspection (“labour inspection
act”)
and on amending and supplementing Act No. 82/2005 Coll. on illegal
work and illegal employment and on amending and supplementing
other relevant
acts as amended “illegal work act”).

82. Eight regional labour inspectorates perform labour inspection at all
workplaces of establishments run by employers or by natural
persons who are
entrepreneurs but not employers, including workplaces located on private
property and in dwellings of natural persons,
and in all premises where home
workers perform agreed work, or where employees perform work according to
agreements on work performed
on the basis of other than employment
relationships. The Ministry of the Interior, the Police Corps, the Fire and
Rescue Corps, the
Ministry of Defence, the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic,
the Corps of Prison and Court Guard, the Railway Police and the Customs
Administration carry out labour inspection through their own inspection
bodies.

83. The State oversees the implementation of the public health act and of
generally binding regulations on health protection at work
through public health
bodies – employees of the central public health office and of regional
public health offices, and designated
employees of the Ministry of Defence,
Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Transport, Post and
Telecommunications. Public
health authorities, especially the Public Health
Office of the Slovak Republic and regional public health offices, perform State
health supervision with a view to ensuring healthy working conditions, adopt
measures, take decisions, issue instructions for correcting
the deficiencies,
and impose sanctions. In performing State health supervision over healthy
working conditions, they act in coordination
with State administration
authorities in charge of labour inspection.

84. According to the mining act, the task of overseeing compliance with the
act and with the rules issued on its basis and on the
basis of other generally
binding regulations governing health and safety at work, safety of technical
equipment, fire protection
underground and working conditions in organizations
carrying out mining activities or activities involving mining procedures,
production
of explosives and use of explosives for blasting and fireworks is
performed by State mining administration bodies – the central
mining
office and district mining offices.

85. State fire protection supervision is performed by State administration
authorities responsible for fire protection – regional
and district
directorates of the Fire and Rescue Corps. Professional State supervision of
work safety and health and of fire protection
is performed by supervision units
set up within service offices of the Police Corps, the Slovak Intelligence
Service, the National
Security Authority, the Corps of Prison and Court Guard,
and the Railway Police in conformity with Act No. 73/1998 Coll. on civil
service
of members of the Police Corps, the Slovak Intelligence Service, the Corps of
Prison and Court Guard and the Railway Police
as amended.

86. According to the findings of inspection and supervision bodies, small and
medium-sized employers are relatively more likely to
infringe obligations laid
down in legal regulations on health and safety at work. Small employers make the
necessary improvements
only after they have been imposed corrective measures and
provided counselling by labour inspectors. The standard of safety and health
at
work has partly improved in construction, woodworking and metalworking
operations in connection with technology modernisation.

87. The figures on the incidence of work injuries show a declining yearlong
trend in the number of work-related injuries, including
fatal injuries. However,
the number of work-related injuries, including fatal injuries, went slightly up
in 2006 and 2007 in comparison
with the previous period.

Table 3

Work-related injuries and occupational diseases in 1998–2007

Year

Average number of employees with sickness insurance

Number of work-related injuries (WRIs)

Number of days of incapacity for work (IWs) due to WRIs

Number of WRIs per 100 employees

Average % of IWs due to WRIs

Number of days of IWs per one WRI

Average daily number of IWs due to WRIs

Number of fatal WRIs (FWRIs)

Incidence of FWRIs per 100,000 employees

Number of occupational diseases

1998

2 199 802

28 105

1 046 177

1.28

0.130

37.22

2 866

138

6.27

740

1999

2 102 060

24 023

942 700

1.14

0.123

39.24

2 583

115

5.47

673

2000

2 057 437

22 116

855 713

1.07

0.114

38.69

2 344

88

4.28

660

2001

2 035 316

20 889

835 945

1.03

0.113

40.02

2 290

100

4.91

577

2002

2 023 454

19 439

800 189

0.96

0.108

41.16

2 192

87

4.30

609

2003

2 011 770

17 349

741 436

0.86

0.101

42.74

2 031

94

4.67

551

2004

2 019 372

13 317

589 281

0.66

0.080

44.25

1 610

79

3.91

613

2005

2 038 874

12 958

622 068

0.64

0.084

48.01

1 700

76

3.73

405

2006

2 037 334

13 826

692 560

0.68

0.093

50.09

1 897

95

4.66

492

2007

2 311 990

14 990

688 468

0.65

0.082

45.93

1 886

97

4.20

556

88. Improvements in the area of work protection including safety and health
at work are believed to have taken place as a result of
sound social policies,
improved performance of inspection, supervisory and counselling activities for
employers and employees, and
specific programmes and measures aimed at
eliminating the risks and factors underlying the incidence of work-related
injuries, occupational
diseases and other work-related health damage. An
important prerequisite for improving work safety and health is the
implementation
of the Concept of Health and Safety at Work in the Slovak
Republic in the period of 2008 to 2012. The related measures are implemented
by
government institutions and social partners.

Gender equality and equal opportunities

89. The Slovak Republic, as a party to the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women, prepared its
second, third and fourth
periodic report to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women. The report
contains information on legislative,
judicial, administrative and other measures that were introduced with a view to
ensuring practical
implementation of Convention provisions and on the progress
achieved in this area in the period between the presentation of the initial
report in June 1998 and the year 2008. The current Slovak government’s
Manifesto addresses for the first time the issues related
to gender equality and
equal opportunities.

90. Issues related to gender equality and equal opportunities in the area of
labour law relationships and employment are provided
for in the Labour Code, the
civil service act, the act on the performance of work in public interest, and
the employment services
act.

91. Basic principles of the Labour Code state that women and men are entitled
to equal treatment as regards access to employment,
remuneration and promotion,
vocational training and working conditions. Working conditions for women are
created with due account
of their physiological characteristics and of the
social function of motherhood, and working conditions of women and men are
created
so as to enable them to fulfil their responsibilities for the upbringing
and care of children.

92. The Labour Code lays down the obligation of employers (para. 13 (1) and
(2)) to treat their employees in labour law relationships
in compliance with the
principle of equal treatment pursuant to the Antidiscrimination Act. The
principle of equal treatment prohibits discrimination also on the ground of
marital and family status, colour of skin, language,
political or other
conviction, trade union activity, national or social origin, property, birth or
other status.

93. As regards wages and remuneration, the Labour Code provides (para. 119a)
that wage terms must be agreed without any gender-based
discrimination; this
applies to all forms of remuneration for work and remuneration that is or will
be due in connection with employment
pursuant to other provisions of the Code or
other relevant legal provisions.

94. Men and women are entitled to equal wages for equal work or for work of
equal value. Equal work or work of equal value means work
of equal or comparable
complexity, responsibility and difficulty, performed under the same or
comparable working conditions, and
achievement of the same or comparable
performance level and results of work in the employment relationship with the
same employer.

95. If the employer applies a job appraisal scheme, this appraisal must be
based on the same criteria for men and women without any
discrimination based on
gender. In appraising the value of work done by women or men, the employer may
apply also other objectively
measurable criteria that are applicable to all
employees irrespective of their gender. This also applies to same-gender
employees
performing equal work or work of equal value.

96. Average wages of women and their percentages in average wages of men in
the 3rd quarter of 2007
were:[16]

• In the business sector: SKK 48,744/month, i.e. 80.9 per cent of
average wages of men

• In the non-business sector: SKK 27,202/month; this, however,
represented as much as 90.1 per cent of average wages of men

Selected statistics on employment of women

97. The number of workers with higher education in 2007 was 367.6 thousand,
47.6 per cent of them women (174.8 thousand). Of this
number, 5.6 thousand
workers had higher education at tertiary level – around 4 thousand of them
men and 1.7 thousand women.

98. The employment rate of persons with higher education in the 15–64
age category in 2007 was 83.8 per cent, 78.4 per cent
of them women and 89.3 per
cent men.

99. According to the Classification of Occupations, out of the total number
of 375.4 thousand persons in groups 1 and 2 in 2007, 183.7
thousand were women,
i.e. 48.9 per cent of the total number of workers in groups 1 and
2.[17]

Table 4

Workers according to the classification of occupations, total, women in
occupation groups 1 and 2 (average for the period in thousand
persons and in per
cent)

Classification of occupations

2006

2007

Number

%

Number

%

Workers – Total

2 301.4

100

2 357.3

100

Major group of occupations

1 Legislators, senior officials and managers

131.8

5.72

128.5

5.45

– Women

36.8

27.92

39.7

30.89

2 Professionals

251.9

10.94

246.9

10.47

– Women

145.4

57.72

144.0

58.32

1 and 2 – Total

383.7

16.67

375.4

15.92

– Women

182.2

47.48

183.7

48.93

100. In conformity with European Parliament and Council Directive
2006/54/EC[18] and ILO Convention
No. 100 concerning equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of
equal value, the Labour Code provides
(para. 119a (3)) that if the employer
applies a job appraisal scheme (as a basis for, e.g., the hierarchical ranking
of jobs for
tariff class purposes depending on their complexity), the appraisal
must be based on the same criteria for men and women without
any gender-based
discrimination.

101. The right of employee representatives to oversee compliance with labour
law legislation, including wage regulations and commitments
arising from
collective agreements, is laid down in the Labour Code (para. 239). Employee
representatives are authorized, inter alia,
to request relevant information and
documentation from the management, to request employers to issue instructions to
correct the
deficiencies, to propose that the employer or other body responsible
for overseeing compliance with labour law legislation applies
adequate sanctions
against management members who violated labour law provisions or obligations
arising from collective agreements,
and to demand information from employers
concerning measures taken to correct the deficiencies identified by the
controls.

102. Employees who are (feel to be) harmed as a result of the violation of
obligations arising from labour law relationships may lodge
a complaint with the
competent labour inspection body. According to the labour inspection act and the
act on illegal work, the body
entrusted with the task to oversee compliance, in
an objective and independent manner, with Labour Code provisions on equal
working
conditions for men and women, including equal remuneration of men and
women, is the labour inspectorate with territorial competence
for the
employer’s registered office. The Labour Code provides (para. 14) that the
disputes between employees and employers
concerning the rights arising from
labour law relationships are heard and decided by independent courts.

Rest

103. The Labour Code (para. 103) sets out the minimum duration of basic paid
leave at four weeks. Workers older than 18 who have completed
at least 15 years
of employment by the end of the calendar year are entitled to a leave of at
least five weeks.

104. The length of employment also includes the following periods or parts
thereof counted in from 18 years of age of the worker:

(a) Uninterrupted care for a child under three years of age;

(b) Service in the armed forces, armed security corps or the Corps of Prison
and Court Guard, performance of civilian service or
of civil service;

(c) Successful completion of study;

(d) Scientific (artistic) post-graduate studies;

(e) Doctoral study;

(f) Membership in a cooperative where the membership also involves an
employment relationship;

(g) Personal care for an almost or totally immobile significant other who
has not been placed in a social services institution or
a similar health-care
facility, personal care for a chronically ill child with serious disability that
requires special care if that
child has not been placed in an establishment for
such children, (h) vocational training provided in accordance with special
regulations;

(i) The period of employee’s registration as an unemployed in
unemployment records or the period during which the employee
received an
invalidity pension;

(j) Remand detention or execution of a custodial sentence if criminal
prosecution against the employee was terminated or if the employee
was
acquitted, including in the subsequent proceedings, custodial sentence served on
the basis of a subsequently revoked judgment
exceeding the length of a more
moderate sentence imposed in the subsequent proceedings;

(k) Self-employment activity.

105. The length of employment abroad or any other creditable period spent
abroad is included in the length of the period used as the
basis for fixing the
duration of paid leave under the same conditions as if the employee had worked
within the territory of the Slovak
Republic.

106. The duration of paid leave of teachers including headmasters and their
deputies, kindergarten teachers including kindergarten
directors and their
deputies, teacher assistants, practical training teachers and educators is eight
weeks per calendar year.

107. The Labour Code sets out the minimum duration of paid leave; a longer
paid leave may be agreed either in collective agreements
or in employment
contracts and/or fixed by the employer’s internal regulatory act.

108. The employee who puts in at least 60 days of work in a calendar year for
the employer in the framework of an uninterrupted employment
relationship with
the employer is entitled to a paid leave pertaining to the entire calendar year
or, if his/her employment relationship
was shorter than one calendar year, to a
pro rata part thereof (paragraph 101 of the Labour Code). The pro rata part of
the paid
leave for each whole calendar month of an uninterrupted employment
relationship is one twelfth of annual paid leave. The employee
who is not
entitled to the annual paid leave or to a pro rata part thereof because he/she
did not put in at least 60 days of work
for the same employer in the calendar
year is entitled to a paid leave for the days worked calculated as one twelfth
of the annual
paid leave for every 21 days worked in the respective calendar
year (paragraph 105 of the Labour Code).

109. Employees are entitled to a paid leave wage replacement in the amount of
their average earnings (paragraph 116 of the Labour
Code). Employees are
entitled to wage replacement in the amount of their average earnings for the
portion of their annual leave exceeding
the basic four-week annual leave, if the
employee was not able to use it even before the end of the following calendar
year. Employees
are not entitled to wage replacement for the unused portion of
their four-week basic annual leave, except where they were unable
to take the
leave due to the termination of their employment relationship.

110. Employees who work during the entire calendar year underground in the
extraction of minerals or driving tunnels or shafts, and
employees performing
extremely strenuous work or work hazardous to health are entitled to one week of
supplementary paid leave (paragraph
106 of the Labour Code). Employees who
perform this type of work only during a part of the calendar year are entitled
to one twelfth
of supplementary paid leave for each 21 days thus worked.

111. For supplementary leave purposes, employees working in arduous or
hazardous conditions or performing extremely strenuous work
or work hazardous to
health are workers who:

(a) Work on a permanent basis in health-care facilities or sections thereof
providing treatment to patients with a contagious form
of tuberculosis or
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS);

(b) Are exposed to direct threat of contagion by working with infectious
materials;

(c) Are exposed to significant adverse effects of ionizing radiation;

(d) Spend at least one half of their statutory weekly working time taking
direct care of or attending to mentally ill or mentally
handicapped persons;

(e) Continuously work for at least one year in a tropical region or in other
regions with demanding health conditions;

(f) Perform exceptionally arduous work during which they are exposed to
harmful physical or chemical agents to the extent that can
have a significant
adverse effect on employees’ health;

(g) Work with recognized chemical carcinogens or in the processes presenting
chemical carcinogenic risks.

112. No work consisting in the sale of goods to final consumers and
activities connected therewith may be assigned to or agreed on
with employees on
1 January, on Easter Sunday, after 12 noon on 24 and on 25 December, except for
retail sale at service stations
selling fuels and lubricants, retail sale and
dispensing of drugs in pharmacies, retail sale at airports, harbours, in public
transport
facilities and hospitals, and the sale of travel tickets and
souvenirs.

113. No categories of workers are excluded from the entitlements applicable
to public holidays. Employees working on a public holiday
are entitled to their
wages plus a wage supplement of at least 50 per cent of their average earnings
(paragraph 122 of the Labour
Code). They are entitled to a wage supplement also
for work performed on a public holiday that falls on the day of the
employee’s
uninterrupted weekly rest period.

114. In those cases where the employer and the employee agreed on a
compensatory leave for work performed on public holidays, the
employee is
entitled to one hour of compensatory leave per each hour worked on a public
holiday. The employee is then not entitled
to a wage supplement. If the employer
does not enable the employee to take a compensatory leave within three calendar
months or within
an otherwise agreed period following the performance of work on
a public holiday, the employee is entitled to a wage supplement.
Employees
taking a compensatory leave are entitled to a corresponding wage replacement in
the amount of their average earnings.

115. The employee who did not work because a public holiday fell on his/her
normal working day is entitled to a wage replacement in
the amount of his/her
average earnings, if the reason for lost wages was a public holiday. In case of
employees remunerated in the
form of monthly salaries, public holidays falling
on their normal working days are considered as working days covered by their
salaries.
These employees are not entitled to wage replacement for public
holidays. Collective agreements may provide that the first sentence
of this
paragraph also applies to employees remunerated in the form of monthly
salaries.

116. Wage replacement for public holidays or wages payable under the previous
paragraph, second sentence, is not payable to employees
who miss, without giving
a justification, the work shift immediately preceding or immediately following a
public holiday or the shift
or part thereof they were supposed to work to on a
public holiday.

117. The employer may agree with a managerial worker that the salary fixed in
the employment contract also covers, where appropriate,
work on public holidays.
In such case, managerial workers are not entitled to wage supplements or to
compensatory leave for working
on public holidays.

118. According to paragraph 18 of Act No. 553/2003 Coll. on remuneration of
certain employees for work in the public interest as amended,
employees are
entitled to a supplement of 100 per cent hourly rate of their service salary per
each hour of work on a public holiday,
except where the employer and the
employee agreed on a compensatory leave for work on public holidays. Employees
are entitled to
their service salary that corresponds to the length of the
compensatory leave. Employees who did not work because a public holiday
fell on
their regular working day are entitled to their service salary, and the public
holiday is considered to be a day worked.

119. Entitlements of civil servants are regulated in a similar manner: the
civil service act (para. 68) stipulates that civil servants
are entitled to a
compensatory leave for work on a public holiday, which should be taken not later
than during the next calendar
month. During the compensatory leave, civil
servants are entitled to their service salary. If, in exceptional cases, they
are not
granted a compensatory leave for civil service performed on a public
holiday, they are entitled to a supplement for every hour of
civil service
performed on a public holiday, amounting to the pro rata part of their service
salary (para. 88). If a public holiday
falls on a day that is normally a working
day for the employee taking a leave, that day is not counted as a day of leave
(paragraph
112 (3) of the Labour Code).

Article 8

Trade union organizations

The right to establish trade unions

120. According to Act No. 83/1990 Coll. on association of citizens as amended
(“Act on association of citizens”), citizens
may create and
associate in trade union organizations. State authorities may interfere with
their status or their activities only
within the limits of the law. No one may
be forced to associate, to join an association or participate in its activities.
Everyone
is free to resign from membership in the association. The fact of
forming an association, joining an association, participating in
its activities,
supporting an association or staying outside of an association must not
prejudice one’s civil liberties.

121. Trade union organizations and employer organizations become legal
entities as of the day following the day on which the application
for entry in
the records has been served on the Ministry of the Interior which is the
competent authority for such records. The provisions
of the act on
citizens’ associations apply by analogy to the entry in the records of
trade union organizations or employers’
organizations. The application for
the entry of a trade union or an employer organization in the records must be
filed by at least
three persons, at least one of them older than 18 years
“preparatory committee”). The application is signed by members
of
the preparatory committee who state their names and surnames, their birth
identification numbers and addresses of residence. They
also state which of the
members older than 18 years is authorized to act on their behalf. Two copies of
the statutes are attached
to the application, specifying:

(a) The name of the trade union organization or the employers’
organization;

(b) Its registered office;

(c) The objective of its activity;

(d) Bodies of the organization, procedure of their appointment, designation
of bodies and officials authorized to act on behalf of
the organization;

(e) Provisions on organizational units insofar as they will be established
and act on their own behalf;

(f) The rights and duties of members.

Unless the statutes otherwise determine, the entity acting on behalf of the
organization before the appointment of its bodies is the
preparatory
committee.

122. Trade union organizations and employers’ organizations may
conclude agreements on cooperation with the aim of achieving
a specific
objective and/or pursuing other common interest. To be valid, the agreement must
be concluded in writing. The cooperation
agreement specifies the purpose of
cooperation, modalities of its implementation, rights and duties of
participating organizations
and the ways in which they contribute to
cooperation.

123. The total number of trade union organizations, trade unions and
employers’ organizations entered in the records in the
Slovak Republic is
currently 959, 610 and 69, respectively. The most representative trade union
organization is the “Confederation
of Trade Unions”. The ministry
does not have the figure on the membership of trade unions or of trade union
confederations
because these entities do not have the obligation to inform the
Ministry of the Interior of their membership.

124. No decision in administrative procedure is issued on the entry in the
records of a trade union organization or an employers’
organization. The
day of entry in the records is noted in the statutes, one copy of which is sent
to the proxy of the preparatory
committee. No fee is charged for filing the
application for entry in the records by a trade union organization or an
employers’
organization.

125. The area of tripartite relations is currently regulated by Act No.
103/2007 Coll. on tripartite consultations at the national
level and on amending
and supplementing other relevant acts (“Tripartite Act”), which
served as the basis for the creation
in 2007 of the Economic and Social Council
of the Slovak Republic – a consultation and negotiation body of
representatives
of the State, representative associations of employers, and
representative associations of trade unions.

126. Civil servants in the Slovak Republic can create and join trade union
organizations freely and without restriction. There are
no statutory
restrictions on the exercise of these rights provided for in the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights.

Collective bargaining

127. According to the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, the civil
servants’ right to strike is limited. This restriction is laid down in
article 51 (1) of
the Constitution which provides that the right to strike under
article 37 (4) of the Constitution can be exercised only within the limits of
the laws implementing these provisions.

128. The civil service act does not recognise the right to strike for civil
servants. However, civil servants are covered by the scope
of Act No. 2/1991
Coll. on collective bargaining as amended (“collective bargaining
act”), which gives civil servants
the right to declare a strike in a
dispute concerning a collective agreement, subject to the conditions laid down
by the act.

129. The Labour Code strengthens the contractual freedom of employers and
employees when concluding agreements on working conditions.
The Labour Code
amendment of 2007 ensures an equal legal status for the parties to labour law
relationships. To achieve this objective,
provisions whose practical application
put either the employer or the employee at a disadvantage in labour law
relationships were
amended.

130. The amended Labour Code provides for example:

• The concept of dependent work in order to prevent the possibility of
excluding from labour law protection the employees whose
legal relationships do
not meet the particulars set forth for independent entrepreneurial activities
in, e.g., the trade licence
act, thus removing the legal uncertainty of
employees

• The extent of impediments to work in the performance of a public
office, training or a strike

• The competences of trade union bodies in case of deficiencies that
directly endanger the lives and health of employees

• The scope of competence of trade union bodies and of works councils
at the workplace and minimum entitlements for the protection
of employee
representatives and their activities at the workplace

• The equilibrium between the rights and obligations of employers and
those of employees

• Equal treatment

• The strengthening of social dialogue

131. The collective bargaining act was amended in 2007 as well. The amendment
lays down more detailed statutory requirements for the
plurality of trade union
organizations in relation to employers or employers’ associations.

132. Plurality of trade union organizations is guaranteed. If several trade
union organizations exist within the same employer entity,
legal effects of
collective bargaining they conduct and of collective agreements they conclude
must apply to all employees; they
must act jointly and in concert, unless all
trade union organizations active within the same employer entity agree on a
different
procedure. If all trade unions active within the same employer entity
fail to agree on a common course of action, or if they do not
use a different
procedure for reaching agreement on the course of action in collective
bargaining, the employer has the right to
conclude a collective agreement with
the trade union organization that has the largest number of members or with
other trade union
organizations if their total membership is greater than the
membership of the largest trade union organization. This plurality principle
is
also guaranteed in the conclusion of higher-level collective agreements
(“HLCA”). The failure of trade union organizations
to reach an
agreement on the course of action in collective bargaining (at a company level
or a higher level) gives rise to a collective
dispute, the object of which is to
identify the trade union organization that should be authorized to conclude a
collective agreement;
the dispute is heard by an arbitrator appointed from the
list of arbitrators kept by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family.
This new procedure, which extends the binding character of HLCAs, creates
prerequisites for the creation of more favourable conditions
of employment also
in employer entities that have no trade unions. This is in line with the
relevant conventions of the International
Labour Organization.

133. The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family may, on a motion of
one party or both parties to a HLCA, issue a legal regulatory
act making the
HLCA binding also for other employers with prevailing activities in the sector
having a corresponding code of industrial
classification of economic activities,
who are not members of the employers’ organization that concluded the
collective agreement.

134. As from 1 April 2007, the collective bargaining act no longer stipulates
that the binding character of a HLCA may be extended
only subject to the
agreement of the employer in respect of whom the extension of the binding
character of collective agreement has
been proposed.

135. In order to examine the proposals referred to above, the Ministry of
Labour, Social Affairs and Family created a tripartite Advisory
Commission on
Extending the Binding Applicability of Higher-Level Collective Agreements,
composed of an equal number of representatives
of trade union organizations and
of employers’ organizations.

136. Moreover, the collective bargaining act sets out more precise time
limits and procedures for handling collective disputes through
mediation. The
act lays down the obligation of mutual cooperation between the parties and the
mediator to make collective dispute
proceedings more effective and to prevent
inaction by one of the parties in mediation proceedings.

Article 9

Social security and social insurance

Social security

137. Although Slovak legislation does not define the term “social
security”, with respect to international institutions
this term generally
encompasses social insurance, social support and, in its broader sense, also
social assistance.

Social insurance

138. The adoption of Act No. 461/2003 Coll. on Social Insurance, with effect
as of 1 January 2004, brought a significant change in
the area of social
security. The law transformed the system of ‘social security’ in the
Slovak Republic into the system
of ‘social insurance system’.
Compared to the legislation in force until 31 December 2003, the right to the
social insurance
benefits is guaranteed under essentially the same conditions,
with the exclusion of preferences.

139. The social insurance system’s core function is to protect
economically active population in the event of specific social
situations
(illness, pregnancy, maternity, disability, old age, death of a breadwinner,
industrial accident, employer’s insolvency
and loss of employment). The
system is based on close linkages to the citizens’ economic activity and
their income.

140. The social insurance system is comprised of five separate subsystems:

• Sickness insurance

• Pension insurance (old-age and disability insurance)

• Accident insurance

• Guarantee insurance

• Unemployment insurance

141. Mandatory sickness and pension insurance applies to the following
persons:

(a) Employees performing work in the territory of the Slovak Republic or
outside the territory of the Slovak Republic during a time
period set by the
employer, unless otherwise provided by an international treaty having precedence
over the laws of the Slovak Republic;

(c) In the case of pension insurance, also the so-called State insurees
(parents caring for a child of up to six years of age, for
a child aged 6 to 18
with chronically ill health, and the persons eligible for nursing benefit on
grounds of caring for a severely
disabled citizen).

142. Mandatory old-age pension insurance also applies to natural persons
receiving accident annuity. Mandatory old-age pension insurance
also applies to
natural persons receiving accident annuity until they have reached the
retirement age or have been granted early
retirement pension.

144. Sickness insurance gives coverage against the loss or reduction of
earnings and provides income in the event of temporary incapacity
to work,
pregnancy and maternity. Subject to the conditions stipulated in the Act on
Social Insurance, the following benefits are
provided under sickness insurance:
sickness benefit, nursing benefit, equalization benefit, and maternity benefit.

145. In case of an employee’s temporary incapacity to work, the law
provides that income compensation be paid by the employer
during the first ten
days of the employee’s temporary incapacity to
work,[19] whereas the Social
Insurance Agency pays sickness benefits as of the 11th day of temporary
incapacity to work. An employee is entitled
to the sickness benefit if, due to
an illness or an injury, he/she is recognized as temporarily incapable of
performing gainful activities
or placed under quarantine. The employee’s
sickness benefit is calculated on the basis of calendar days. The daily amount
of
the employee’s sickness benefit represents 55 per cent of the daily
assessment base. Self-employed persons and the voluntary
sickness insurance
policy holders are entitled to sickness benefits as of the first day of their
temporary incapacity to work. For
these persons, the sickness benefit from the
first until the third day of incapacity to work represents 25 per cent, and from
the
fourth day onward 55 per cent, of the daily assessment base.

146. An insuree who is pregnant or is caring for a born child is entitled to
maternity benefit if, in the two years prior to delivery,
she had a sickness
insurance policy in the duration of at least 270 days. The insuree is entitled
to receive maternity benefit as
of the commencement of the sixth week prior to
the anticipated date of delivery determined by a physician, at the soonest as of
the
commencement of the eighth week prior to this date and, if the birth occurs
earlier, as of the date of delivery. The entitlement
to maternity benefit ceases
upon the lapse of the 28th week following the date on which the benefit
entitlement arose. Where the
insuree gave birth simultaneously to two or more
children and is caring for at least two of the born children, or if she is
single,
the entitlement to maternity benefit ceases upon the lapse of the 37th
week following the date on which the benefit entitlement arose.
The
child’s father may receive maternity benefit in agreement with the
child’s mother at the earliest on the lapse of
six weeks following the
date on which the benefit entitlement arose. The maternity benefit represents 55
per cent of the daily assessment
base.

147. Other sickness insurance benefits include the nursing benefit to which
an insuree is entitled if he/she is caring for an ill
family member. The
equalization benefit is provided to pregnant employees who were reassigned to
perform another type of work since
the original work is prohibited for pregnant
women or could, according to medical opinion, jeopardize her pregnancy and if,
through
no fault of hers, she earns less in the new work assignment than she
would have in the original one. An employee is entitled to the
equalization
benefit if she is reassigned to perform another type of work during maternity
until the end of the ninth month after
delivery since the original work is
prohibited for women until the end of the ninth month after delivery pursuant to
a separate regulation
or would, according to medical opinion, jeopardize her
health or maternity and if, through no fault of hers, she earns less in the
new
work assignment than she would have in the original one.

Table 5

Number of sickness insurance benefit recipients and average amounts in
2007

Benefit

Number of cases in 2007

Comparison with the situation in 2006

Average benefit amount in 2007 (in SKK)

Comparison with the situation in 2006

Sickness benefit

1 048 818

106.02

4 241

107.34

Nursing benefit

125 187

110.04

1 508

111.74

Equalization benefit

851

98.95

879

80.42

Maternity benefit

205 368

101.82

6 800

108.89

Pension insurance

148. Pension insurance is divided into the old-age insurance, which provides
income past the retirement age and in case of death,
and the disability
insurance, which provides income in cases of impaired ability to perform gainful
activities due to the insuree’s
long-term adverse health condition and for
the case of death.

149. Old-age pension represents the basic old-age insurance benefit and
serves to provide income past the retirement age. Only the
insurees who have
been in old-age insurance system for at least 15 years and reached the statutory
age of retirement become eligible
to the old-age pension. The statutory
retirement age for both men and women is 62 years. The retirement age will be
unified after
the lapse of a transitional period (in the legislative time
horizons of 2004–2006 for men and 2004–2014 for women).

150. Method of old-age pension calculation:

Old-age pension = APWP x R x CPV

APWP – Average personal wage point (the ratio of the actual assessment
base/gross income/to the general assessment base/average
wage in the economy of
the Slovak Republic/during the decisive period since 1984)

R – Insurance period (the total insurance duration)

CPV – Current pension value (for 2008 it represented SKK 249.14)

151. The State pays the old-age insurance and disability insurance premiums,
as well as contributions to the reserve fund of solidarity,
on behalf of the
persons adequately caring for children of up to six years of age or for children
with a long-term adverse health
condition of up to 18 years of age, and on
behalf of the persons receiving nursing benefits on grounds caring for a
severely disabled
citizen. For the purposes of social insurance, through the
application of this measure the State has placed adequate care for a child
and
nursing of a severely disabled person on par with paid work, i.e. the State pays
premiums on behalf of the above persons during
the period of such care; the
persons themselves do not have to pay the pension insurance premiums.

152. Early retirement is also possible; the entitlement to the early
retirement pension is subject to two conditions: the insuree
has been in the
pension insurance system for at least 15 years and the pension amount exceeds
1.2-fold of an adult person’s
subsistence minimum. Application for early
retirement pension is admissible at the earliest two years prior to reaching the
retirement
age; the early retirement pension amount is reduced by 0.5 per cent
for each commenced 30-day period left until the insuree reaches
retirement
age.

153. The Act on Social Insurance stipulates uniform conditions of entitlement
to survivor pensions for both men and women. A widow(er)
is entitled to the
payment of a widow(er)’s pension during a period of one year from the
spouse’s death. After the lapse
of the one-year period, the widow is
entitled to the payment of a widow’s pension if she is caring for a
dependent child, has
a disability reducing her earning capacity by more than 70
per cent, has raised at least three children, has reached the age of 52
and
raised two children, or has reached the retirement age.

154. A dependent child becomes entitled to the orphan’s benefit if the
deceased parent (adopter) had been recipient of old-age
pension, early
retirement pension or disability pension or had, as of the day of death, reached
the number of years of insurance
necessary for entitlement to disability
pension, complied with the conditions for entitlement to old-age pension, or
died due to
an industrial accident or occupational disease. The orphan’s
pension amounts to 40 per cent of the deceased parent’s
pension.

155. Disability pension is the basic benefit provided under disability
insurance. The Act on Social Insurance defines disability as
a long-term adverse
health condition reducing the insuree’s earning capacity by more than 40
per cent when compared with a
healthy natural person. The earning capacity
reduction rates are stipulated in an annex to the Act on Social Insurance. The
entitlement
to disability pension arises when the person’s capacity to
conduct gainful activity is reduced by more than 40 per cent and
the person has
attained the required number of years of pension insurance. A natural person is
also entitled to disability pension
if he/she became disabled at a time when
he/she was a dependent child and is a permanent resident of the Slovak Republic.
Such a
natural person becomes entitled to disability pension no sooner than on
the date of reaching the age of 18.

Table 6

Number of pensions paid and average pension amounts in 2006 and
2007

Pension type

Number of pensions paid as of:

Average (solo) pension amount in SKK as of:

31.12.2006

31.12.2007

31.12.2006

31.12.2007

Old-age

916 296

916 941

8 226

8 885

Early retirement

44 693

48 225

8 970

9398

Disability

182 856

195 139

6 139

6 621

Widow’s

302 363

302 807

5 203

5 544

Widower’s

13 631

31 109

3 540

3 949

Orphan’s

30 237

29 645

2 982

3 242

Total

1 490 076

1 523 866

X

X

Pensions paid abroad

6 543

7 480

X

X

156. The year 2005 brought a structural change in the mandatory pension
system – the introduction of an old-age pension saving
scheme with certain
elements of capitalization (the so-called second pillar of the pension
system).[20] The purpose of
introducing the old-age pension saving scheme was to diversify the risks of
individual pension funding methods, i.e.
pay-as-you-go and wholly funded.

157. The old-age pension saving scheme is contribution-based and financed
through contributions credited to personal pension accounts.
Each individual who
decides to enter this scheme can chose one from a number of pension fund
management companies which generate
and manage three pension funds with
different investment strategies. Social Insurance Agency collects the old-age
pension saving
contributions. The old-age pension saving contribution amount
represents 9 per cent of the assessment base. As of 31 December 2007
the old-age
pension saving scheme comprised 1,562,257 savers.

158. The old-age pension saving scheme will serve to pay old-age pensions and
early retirement pensions in the form of programmed
withdrawal with a life
annuity or in the form of a life annuity, and survivor pensions from the
deceased recipients of old-age pensions
or early retirement pensions paid from
the old-age pension saving scheme.

159. Supplementary pension saving (the so-called third pillar of the pension
system) serves to accumulate supplementary pension saving
contributions from
supplementary pension saving participants and employers, with the aim to enable
a supplementary pension saving
participant to obtain supplementary pension
income in the old age and in the event of discontinuation of work classified
under health
protection category 3 or 4, as well as other equivalent types of
work.[21]

160. Supplementary pension saving is contribution-based, financed through
capitalization, maintained by supplementary pension companies
pursuant to Act
No. 650/2004 Coll. on Supplementary Pension Saving and on amendments to certain
acts, as amended, and is subject
to a tax benefit as of 1 January 2005. As of 31
December 2007 the supplementary pension saving scheme comprised 791 824 active
clients.

Accident insurance

161. Accident insurance represents insurance against the cases of a health
damage or death resulting from an industrial accident,
accident on duty, or
occupational disease. Pursuant to the conditions stipulated in the Act on Social
Insurance, the following accident
benefits are provided under the accident
insurance: accident allowance, accident annuity, one-off settlement, survivor
accident annuity,
one-off compensation, working rehabilitation and
rehabilitation benefit, retraining and retraining benefit, compensation for pain
and compensation for impaired employability, compensation for the cost of
treatment, compensation of funeral costs.

162. Accident insurance is the employer’s insurance to all employers
with at least one employee. Apart from the persons working
under an employment
or service contract, accident insurance also protects those working for the
employer on the basis of an agreement,
namely:

• An agreement on the performance of work and

• An agreement on temporary work of students

163. Accident annuity and accident allowance represent the most frequently
paid and the most costly accident insurance benefits. Entitlement
to the
accident annuity is conditional upon more than 40 per cent impairment in the
person’s working ability as a result of
industrial accident or
occupational disease. In 2007, the average number of accident annuity recipients
reached 5,077 per month,
with average monthly benefit reaching SKK 7,043. In
2007, the average number of the survivor’ accident annuity recipients
reached
268 per month, with average monthly benefit reaching SKK 2,773. Accident
allowance is a benefit paid to the person who is incapable
of working due to
industrial accident or occupational disease (the allowance is paid in addition
to the sickness benefit). In 2007,
the average number of the accident allowance
recipients reached 2,671 per month, with average monthly allowance reaching SKK
2,933.

Guarantee insurance

164. Guarantee insurance represents insurance against the employer’s
insolvency in satisfying the employee’s claims and
also covers the old-age
pension contributions, which the employer did not contribute to the basic fund
of old-age pension contributions.
Under conditions stipulated in the Act on
Social Insurance, guarantee insurance benefit is provided under guarantee
insurance. A
total of 2,821 benefits were paid in 2007, with average benefit
amounting to SKK 24,605.

Unemployment insurance

165. Unemployment insurance represents am insurance against loss of income
from the employee’s work due to unemployment and
serves to provide income
in unemployment. Subject to the conditions stipulated in the Act on Social
Insurance, the unemployment benefit
is paid from the unemployment insurance
scheme during a period of six or four months. In 2007, the average number of
recipients reached
22,311 per month, with the average monthly unemployment
benefit amounting to SKK 6,713.

Social support

166. Social security also includes the State social support system comprised
of both lump-sum and repeated benefit payments to families
with children, with
which the State financially contributes towards the expenses incurred by the
parents in their care for dependent
children. The State social support system
consists of the following benefits:

• Child benefit

• Supplementary child benefit

• Parental allowance

• Child birth allowance

• Bonus to child birth allowance

• Allowance for parents who have three or more children born at the
same time or twins more than once in two years

• Allowances to support substitute care for a child: one-off allowance
upon entrusting into substitute care, one-off allowance
upon cessation of
substitute care, regular allowance for a child, regular allowance for a
substitute parent, special regular allowance
for a substitute parent

• Substitute child maintenance

167. By means of these State social benefits the State financially supports
families at the birth of one or more children, when raising
and maintaining a
child, when preparing a child for profession, when parents care for a child in
infancy, upon the commencement of
and during substitute family care; it also
supports single parents in providing for a child’s maintenance. In the
period from
November 2002 until May 2008, several significant legislative
changes took place in response to the needs of families in changing
societal
conditions. At present, the provision of the State social benefits is governed
by several laws and
regulations.[22]

168. The most significant changes concerned the provision of child benefits:
the testing of income of jointly assessed persons was
abandoned and, as of 2004,
the benefit is provided for all dependent children, regardless of the
parents’ income and the child’s
age, in a flat monthly amount of SKK
540 until the dependent child reaches the age of 25. At the same time, the tax
reform[23] introduced the provision
of a tax bonus of SKK 400 per month to earning parents who receive child
benefits. The said tax bonus amount
was gradually adjusted to SKK 555 per month
per maintained child, assuming compliance with the eligibility conditions. With
effect
as of 1 July 2008, the tax bonus increased to SKK 582 per month, using
the same coefficient and the taxation-period calendar months
as apply to the
subsistence minimum. As of 1 January 2008, the most recent legislative amendment
of the child benefit introduced
the provision of a bonus of SKK 300 per month to
the child benefit, where the parents of a dependent child receive pensions, do
not
perform gainful activities and are, therefore, not eligible for tax
bonus.

Table 7

The child benefit amounts paid from 2002 until 2007 and the average
monthly count of children in respect of which the benefit had
been paid

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Amount paid in SKK ‘000

9 274 324

8 818 446

6 827 891

8 676 073

8 461 580

8 254 143

Average monthly children count

1 103 150

1 365 444

1 040 211

1 312 573

1 284 654

1 252 710

169. At the birth of every child, the State provides the parents with a
one-off contribution of SKK 4,560; this amount is increased
by one half if
multiple children are born. Significant changes occurred with respect to the
child birth allowances when, effective
from 1 January 2007, a one-off bonus of
SKK 11,000 to child birth allowance at the birth of mother’s first child
was introduced.
With effect from 1 February 2008, this bonus has been increased
to SKK 20,440. By providing this bonus, the State helps the parents
cover the
family’s increased expenses associated with the birth of a firstborn. In
such cases the total State support together
with the child birth allowance
represents SKK 25,000. By means of a regulation, the Government may adopt annual
adjustments to both
the amount of the child birth allowance and the newly
introduced bonus.

170. Changes were also made with respect to the parental allowance intended
for parents personally caring for a child of up to three
years of age or up to
six years of age in the event of a child with a long-term adverse health
condition. In the event of a parent
caring for a child and performing a gainful
activity, who entrusts the child into the care of another natural person or
legal person
during his/her absence, with effect as of 1 July 2005 the State
continues to provide full parental allowance amounting to SKK 4,560
per month;
as of 1 September 2008 this amount was increased to SKK 4,780 per month. The
amount of the parental allowance is adjusted
proportionally to the change of the
subsistence minimum every year.

171. Parental allowance can be claimed by one of the parents — mother
or father — based on mutual agreement. Where a parent
had been conducting
gainful activity, he/she may claim parental allowance after having ceased to
receive the maternity benefit under
sickness insurance. However, if the
maternity benefit amount paid is less than State social assistance in the form
of parental allowance,
the parent may request an equalising additional payment
to the maternity benefit. A parent who was not eligible for the maternity
benefit or who did not conduct any gainful activity — e.g. an unemployed
person or a student — may request parental allowance
as of the
child’s birth. As of 1 July 2005 the State provides full parental
allowance also to the parent caring for a child
and performing a gainful
activity, who entrusts the child into the care of another natural person or
legal person during his/her
absence.

Table 8

The parental allowance amounts paid from 2002 until 2007 and the average
monthly count of recipients to whom parental allowance had
been paid

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Amount paid in SKK ‘000

4 171 533

5 646 750

5 790 213

6 531 213

7 059 118

7 370 374

Average monthly recipient count

128 873

124 956

126 408

131 297

134 786

135 083

172. In connection with the adoption of new Act No. 36/2005 Coll. on Family
and on amendments to certain acts (“Act on Family”)
new legislation
was drawn up,[24] taking effect as
of 1 January 2006. The State uses a system of one-off and recurring allowances
(one-off allowance upon entrusting
into substitute care, one-off allowance upon
cessation of substitute care, recurring allowance for a child, recurring
allowance for
a substitute parent, special recurring allowance for a substitute
parent) to financially support substitute care for a child provided
personally
by a natural person other than parent based on a court decision. The amounts of
the one-off and recurring allowances are
adjusted every year by the percentage
of subsistence minimum increase.

Table 9

State financial support amounts in SKK ‘000 for 2006 and 2007, which
had been provided to support substitute care for a child

2006

2007

Recurring allowance for a child

179 939

225 324

Recurring allowance for a substitute parent

51 768

66 070

Foster parent allowance

21 733

17 509

Special recurring allowance for a substitute parent

1 447

1 917

One-off allowance upon entrusting into substitute care

11 205

8 302

One-off allowance upon cessation of substitute care

11 526

9 407

173. Single parents with dependent children are more vulnerable to the risk
of poverty than complete families. This was one of the
reasons to introduce
substitute child maintenance[25]
– funds provided by the State to secure a child’s maintenance in the
event that the child’s parent or another responsible
person fails to
fulfil his/her maintenance obligation established by court.

Table 10

Number of children and sum of substitute child maintenance paid from 2005
until 2007

2005

2006

2007

Funds in SKK ‘000

38 620

71 042

91 037

Average monthly recipient count

1 602

3 362

4 051

174. The new law in force as of 1 July 2008 expanded the group of eligible
persons to also include orphans, whose orphan’s benefit
is lower than the
minimum maintenance amount stipulated by the Act on Family, and orphans not
eligible for orphan’s benefit.
Substitute child maintenance thus also
addresses the situation of those children, towards which the responsible person
can no longer
fulfil his/her maintenance obligation and which fall outside the
scope of the social insurance system. The provision of substitute
child
maintenance can be seen as a significant feature preventing cases of children in
material need.

Social assistance

175. Social assistance represents a part of the social security system and
addresses the instances of citizens in material need. The
material need
assistance eligibility criteria as well as the competences of State
administration and local authorities are stipulated
in Act No. 599/2003 Coll. on
Assistance in Material Need and on the amendment of certain acts (“Act on
Assistance in Material
Need”).

176. The social assistance system supports citizens in material need, in
accordance with the Act on Assistance in Material Need, by
providing the social
assistance benefit and the allowance to the social assistance benefit.

177. The Act on Assistance in Material Need provides for basic living
conditions for citizens and natural persons assessed jointly
with the citizens
in material need; financially, they are represented by six tiers of the basic
benefit, depending on the family
structure. The social assistance benefit can be
supplemented by four types of allowance (health-care allowance, housing
allowance,
activation allowance and protection allowance). The allowance
eligibility criteria are stipulated by law. A one-off social assistance
benefit
can be provided to cover extraordinary expenses of citizens in material need.
Since the addressing of material need is guaranteed
under the Constitution,
assistance in material need is subject to administrative proceedings subject to
judicial review.

178. The tools addressing material need include the social assistance benefit
and allowances to the social assistance benefit, which
are provided regularly to
the persons with no income or with income below the subsistence minimum
stipulated in Act No. 601/2003
Coll. on the Subsistence Minimum (“Act on
Subsistence Minimum”).

Social security of members of the State Security Corps, Rescue Corps and
Armed Forces

179. As of 1 July 2002, social security of members of the State security
corps, members of the Fire and Rescue Corps, members of the
Mountain Rescue
Service, members of the armed forces, as well as widows (widowers) and dependent
children of deceased members of
the above, is governed by a separate
regulation[26] and represents an
independent social security system maintained by the respective ministries and
State organizations controlling
these corps and armed forces.

180. The system is based on social insurance with a State guarantee. The
State guarantees the necessary level of the benefits paid
and the associated
services provided. The existence of such a separate social security system is
due to the need to compensate for
the adverse social consequences of their
service in the security corps, rescue corps and in the armed forces and for the
risks associated
therewith, and to provide an incentive to serve in the
State’s interest. Social security of members of the State security corps,
rescue corps and armed forces includes the following:

• Sickness security

• Accident security

• Years-of-service security

• Provision of services

181. With respect to health insurance, members of the security corps, rescue
corps and the armed forces, like other citizens, fall
within the general
compulsory health insurance system. Beyond the scope of health care under this
system they are also provided specific
health care necessary in view of their
service in the said corps and forces, which is financed by the State. This
conceptual solution
has fully proven itself in the past years.

Members of the Fire and Rescue Corps

182. From 1 April 2002 until 1 January 2008, members of the Fire and Rescue
Corps (“corps members”) had been classified
under the general health
and social security system and had been subject to the same generally applicable
regulations that applied
to other citizens. The provided medical care, benefits
in illness, maternity and parenting, the system of pension security, social
support and assistance was essentially the same as with regular citizens, apart
from several social provisions laid down in Act No.
315/2001 Coll. on the Fire
and Rescue Corps (“Corps Act”).

183. The corps members’ social security and sickness security was
governed by the provisions of the Corps Act (paragraphs 163
through 173). In
order to safeguard the legitimate interests and needs of the corps members, to
improve the conditions of service
as well as health, social and cultural
conditions, a collective agreement was concluded with the fire brigades union
and collective
agreements were also being concluded on the level of civil
service offices.

184. The performance of tasks in the area of social security of corps members
and employees of the Fire and Rescue Corps is subject
to annual assessment
focusing mainly on the provision of health care to corps members, provision of
psychological care, catering
of corps members and corps employees,
reconditioning stays for corps members and the payment of supplementary sickness
benefits,
supplementary benefits for nursing a family member, supplementary
equalization benefits and supplementary pension for State service.

185. Corps members annually participated in periodic preventive medical
checks.[27] Their aim was to review
the corps members’ health and, in the event of deterioration, to recommend
a change of medical classification
or termination of service based on enquiry
proceedings. Corps members were also subject to mandatory vaccination.

186. As of 1 January 2003, civil protection army rescue units were
transformed into the corps’s organizational structures, whereby
the corps
acquired three health centres attached to Rescue Brigades in Malacky,
Žilina and Humenné and serving the entire
corps. These centres
deliver and coordinate comprehensive treatment and prevention, organise
preventive medical activities and take
part in the performance of the
corps’s regional tasks. They organize and deliver treatment and preventive
care for corps members,
examine and treat corps members and, where possible,
also their family members and former employees as well as pensioners. They
provide
timely medical assistance in the event of mass deployment of corps
members, deployment in dangerous rescue work, dangerous training,
various mass
competitions and other events, upon request by civil service offices. The
centres monitor and assess the overall health
in the corps as well as illness
and accident rates, prepare analyses of incapacity to serve due to illnesses and
accidents and submit
the results along with proposed measures to the corps
president. They monitor the occurrence of communicable diseases, serious
injuries
and occupational diseases and propose adequate preventive measures. As
of 1 January 2008 corps members also receive specific health-care
services
(paragraphs 102b and 102c of the Corps Act).

187. Corps psychologists assessed the psychological fitness of job applicants
in the corps, and also conducted other activities associated
with psychological
care for corps members. Corps members received post-traumatic intervention care.
Expert psychological preparation
took place in the scope of elementary training
as well as specialized expert trainings, as well as psychological consultancy to
corps
members. Corps members conducting specialized activities within the corps
were examined by the corps’s clinical psychologist.

188. Also the expenses associated with service contract establishment and
with a transfer for the conduct of activities outside the
place of State service
are reimbursed. This provision was only applied sporadically (paragraph 58 of
the Corps Act).

189. The equalization benefit was introduced to the Corps Act with effect as
of 1 April 2002. According to the original Corps Act
wording (para. 133) a corps
member who has worked at least 20 years in the corps and has reached the age of
50, whose service contract
was terminated on grounds of a decision by a medical
committee declaring him/her incapable, due to his/her health condition, in the
long term to perform the current job or any job in the corps that would not be
detrimental to his/her health, and who did not yet
become eligible for pension
from the social security system is awarded an equalization benefit until
reaching the old-age pension
eligibility age. The corps member becomes eligible
for the equalization benefit as of the date of permanent State service
termination
up to the amount reaching, when combined with income from other
gainful activities, the last month’s service pay. The equalization
benefit
was paid by the civil service office without the need for a request by the corps
member.

190. The amendment of the Corps Act with effect as of 1 January 2005 repealed
one of the conditions of eligibility for the equalization
benefit – namely
reaching the age of 50. Approximately 142 former corps members receive the
equalization benefit. In 2007 the
monthly sum of equalization benefits paid
represented SKK 3 496 119, averaging SKK 24 620 per member.

191. A survivor is entitled to a death benefit equal to the discharge benefit
to which the member would have been entitled at the
time of his/her death or
declaration of death; every survivor dependent child is eligible for a death
benefit amounting to the member’s
one month’s pay (paragraph 133 of
the Corps Act).

192. Corps members are obliged to undergo a reconditioning stay in a duration
of 14 consecutive days, assuming compliance with statutory
conditions (paragraph
161 (2) (a) and (b) of the Corps Act). With effect as of 1 May
2004[28] the scope of corps members
to whom the reconditioning stay had been provided was expanded. Previously, they
had to be examined and
assigned by a medical committee; as of the effective date
of the Corps Act, the reconditioning stay is provided without a medical
committee’s decision.

193. If, due to an illness or an accident, a corps member is recognized as
temporarily incapable of State service and became eligible
for income
compensation or for a sickness benefit, he/she is entitled to a supplementary
sickness benefit or a supplementary nursing
benefit in an amount serving to
match the member’s pay. The supplementary benefit can be paid for a
maximum total of 30 days
per calendar year (paragraph 163 of the Corps Act).

194. Former corps members or survivors of deceased corps members complying
with the statutory eligibility criteria receive a supplementary
pension for
State service (paragraph 165 of the Corps Act). Within the members’
pension security scheme, supplementary pension
for State service is being
provided to approximately 153 recipients. In 2007 the disbursed amount
represented SKK 7,787,115, averaging
SKK 4,241 per recipient.

195. Of the 4 102 jobs in the corps, 279 are staffed by female corps members,
representing 6.80 per cent of the planned number of
jobs in the corps. When
compared with the situation as of 31 March 2007, the proportion of women in the
corps has increased slightly
– from 6.52 per cent to 6.80 per cent. As
regards specific activities within the corps, women are mostly assigned to fire
prevention
units, personnel offices and civil service offices and perform
activities associated with economic and material resources of the
corps.

196. The Corps Act stipulates separate State service conditions for female
members of the Fire and Rescue Corps. If a pregnant member
or a member after the
end of her maternity leave and parental leave until the ninth month following
delivery performs State service,
the performance of which by pregnant members is
prohibited under a separate regulation or would jeopardize her pregnancy or
maternity,
the civil service office is obliged to temporarily adjust the service
conditions to prevent jeopardy. Where this is not possible,
the civil service
office is obliged to reassign her to a different position, which is suitable
(paragraph 102 of the Corps Act).
If the civil service office cannot reassign
the member to a different position, it shall place her on maternity leave and,
after
the end of maternity leave until the end of the ninth month following
delivery, outside active State service. In both cases the member
is entitled to
the same level of pay as she was receiving prior to the above changes.

197. If the member is entitled to receive maternity benefit pursuant to a
separate regulation, such member is entitled to supplementary
maternity benefit
amounting to the difference between the service salary (less the advance payment
for employee income and benefit
tax and the premium for health insurance,
sickness insurance, old-age insurance, disability insurance and unemployment
insurance)
and the provided maternity benefit (paragraph 164 of the Corps
Act).

198. The social aspects may also include the provision of supplementary
benefits for catering, jubilees in work and personal life,
recreation, cultural
and social events, civil defence and sports events, transport allowance,
meetings with pensioners, social assistance,
etc.

199. Based on the Manifesto of the Slovak Government of August
2006,[29] a draft act amending Act
No. 328/2002 Coll. on social security for policemen and soldiers and on
amendments to certain acts as amended
(“Act on social security for
soldiers”) was prepared to include the members of the Police Corps,
Railway Police, Corps
of Prison Court Guard, Slovak Intelligence Service,
National Security Authority, customs officers and members of the Fire and Rescue
Corps in a separate social security system. In terms of the character and the
course of duty, the service of fire fighters is analogous
to that of armed
forces or police corps members, with identical or very similar social impacts on
fire fighters and members of their
families.

200. According to an amended Act on social security for soldiers which
entered into force as of 1 January 2008, the members of the
Fire and Rescue
Corps were included in the separate social security system of the Police Corps,
Railway Police, Corps of Prison and
Court Guard, Slovak Intelligence Service,
National Security Authority, customs officers and members of Armed Forces,
whereby all
social security aspects covered by this legislation now apply to
Fire and Rescue Corps members as well. At the same time, the previously
existing
provisions on social security were deleted from the Corps Act.

201. In our opinion, this Act has been in force for such a short time that
any evaluation would not be objective. To achieve the desired
output, it will
probably be easier to evaluate the application of the individual specific social
security provisions under the Act
on social security for soldiers as amended by
regulations applicable to other forces.

Article 10

Protection of and assistance to families, mothers and children

Protection of children

202. Detailed information on the protection of the rights of the child is
provided in the second periodic report of the Slovak Republic
concerning the
implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child for
the period 2001–2005. The second
periodic report of the Slovak Republic
was submitted in accordance with article 44 of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child and
was discussed on 22 May 2007 during the 45th session of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child held in Geneva.

203. On 1 September 2005, new legislation for the social and legal protection
of children and social
guardianship[30] entered into force.
It was aimed at establishing (through legal regulation of relations) a legal
basis for thorough protection of
the rights and interests of minors, efficient,
intensive and systemic assistance and support to children and families, for
arranging
an equivalent and substitute environment for children not brought up
in their natural families, for effective prevention and removal
of the causes of
disorders among individuals, groups of individuals or larger social units as
regards their mental, physical or social
development, and for stopping such
disorders from spreading, recurring or developing into more severe cases. At the
same time, the
objective was to ensure that the international treaties and
documents on the rights of the child, which are binding on the Slovak
Republic,
are incorporated in the national legislation.

204. In comparison with the previous legislation, major changes in the Act on
the social and legal protection of children and social
guardianship include, for
the most part, new provisions concerning the obligation to offer psychological
help to a child whose parents
are getting divorced, extended possibilities of
helping children, families and adults at risk, more detailed provisions
concerning
disciplinary measures and their application, new regulation
concerning the institute of social guardianship, new foster care and
guardianship provisions, repatriation and assistance to unaccompanied minors,
enforcement of the purpose of court decision in the
facilities for social and
legal protection of children and social guardianship, newly drafted measures for
social and legal protection
of children and social guardianship to ensure
substitute family environment, including new domestic rules governing
international
adoptions of children. The Act on the social and legal protection
of children and social guardianship commits the authority for social
and legal
protection of children and social guardianship to prepare plans of social work
with the child and his/her family in cases
where (i) institutional care was
ordered for a minor, (ii) a disciplinary measure was imposed, (iii) social
guardianship of a child
or an adult is in place.

205. A special attribute of the legislation concerning social and legal
protection of children and social prevention is that it is
predetermined by the
legislation concerning family law, civil law and criminal law. The relation
between the Act on Family and the
legislation on social and legal protection of
children and social prevention is particularly important. The Act on Family lays
down
conditions which, through their very existence, provide the grounds for the
adoption and implementation of any of the measures concerning
social and legal
protection of children and social prevention.

206. Amendments were also made to the Act on allowances to support substitute
care for a child effective from 1 January 2006 which,
unlike the previous
legislation, enlarged the group of eligible children with dependent children
placed in substitute care. The objective
of the applicable legislation was to
ensure that all children, whose parents do not, or are unable to care for them,
are treated
on equal footing. Another objective was to simplify the
decision-making process for those persons (especially relatives and significant
others) who seek to apply for substitute care of a child without having to meet
strict requirements of foster care.

State Family Policy

207. As a follow-up to the reforms and vast changes in society, the State
Family Policy was updated[31] in
2004 with a particular focus on the employment policy, education, housing and
legal protection of family members. Since 2004,
the basic priorities in the
implementation of the family policy also include improved access to education,
availability of housing,
reconciliation of work and family life, legal
protection of the family and assistance in crisis situations, in addition to the
fundamental
strategic goals.

208. The fundamental strategic goals and the basic principles of the State
Family Policy, which are predominantly applied in the areas
of the legal
protection of family and its members, social and economic conditions of
families, education of children and youth, preparation
for marriage and
parenthood and health protection of family members, are contained in the State
Family Policy[32] as the fundamental
document for this sector. Since the beginning of 2008, the conditions and
premises for the preparation of a new
State Family Policy, which should be,
inter alia, based on a qualified survey on the needs and expectations of
families, are being
gradually drawn up.

Special protection of mothers

209. The legislation enshrines gender equality in terms of employment. The
special position of women is established only with respect
to the need to ensure
their protection due to their physiological characteristics and duties of
motherhood. Women may not be assigned
work tasks which are physically
inappropriate for them and which cause damage to their health, in particular
work tasks that pose
a threat to their role as mothers. The lists of work tasks
and workplaces that are prohibited for pregnant women, mothers until the
ninth
month after the delivery and for breastfeeding mothers are laid down in
Government Regulation No. 272/2004 Coll.

210. Furthermore, pregnant women, mothers until the ninth month after the
delivery and breastfeeding mothers may not be assigned work
tasks that,
according to medical opinion, pose a threat to their pregnancy for reasons
arising from their health condition (paragraph
161 of the Labour Code). In terms
of protection with respect to the care for a child, the legal status of male
employees caring for
a child is equal to that of female employees.

211. The Labour Code enshrines the protection of a pregnant woman, woman or
man caring for a child prior to the termination of employment.
An employer may
not give a notice to an employee within a protected period, i.e. within the
period of employee’s pregnancy,
or when an employee is on maternity leave
or a female or a male employee is on parental leave, or when a female or male
employee
cares for a child of up to three years of age as a single parent
(paragraph 64 (1) (c) of the Labour Code). Employment may be terminated
only in
special cases, i.e. if the employer or part of employer’s organization is
wound-up or relocated, or – as far
as pregnant employee, female and male
employee on a parental leave or female or male employee caring (as a single
parent) for a child
of up to three years of age are concerned, in cases
justifying the employer to immediately terminate the employment relationship
(paragraph 63 (1) (a) of the Labour Code).

212. When designating employees to work shifts, an employer shall be obliged
to take into account the needs of pregnant women, and
women and men caring for
children (paragraph 164 of the Labour Code). If a pregnant woman, men and women
continuously caring for
a child younger than 15 years of age requests a
reduction in working time or other arrangement to the fixed weekly working time,
the employer shall be obliged to accommodate such request if it is not prevented
by substantive operational reasons. A pregnant woman,
a woman or man
continuously caring for a child of up to three years of age, or a single man or
woman continuously caring for a child
younger than 15 years of age, may work
overtime only with their consent. Stand-by duty may only be assigned following
an agreement
with such persons.

213. The Act on Civil Service protects pregnant civil service employees and
mothers. If a pregnant civil servant employee performs
a civil service that is
forbidden or harmful to pregnant women as indicated by a medical opinion, the
civil service office is obliged
to make temporary adjustments to civil service
duties in order to prevent such threat (paragraph 76 of the Civil Service Act).
Where
this is not possible, the civil service office is obliged to transfer her
to civil service that is suitable for her. Following such
transfer, the civil
servant is entitled to receive the service salary attributable to the civil
service performed which, however,
may not be less than the service salary she
received prior to such transfer. This applies equally to a civil servant after
the end
of her maternity leave (nine months after delivery of a child). The
provisions of the Labour Code apply to the protection of pregnant
civil servants
and mothers accordingly.

214. In connection with caring for a newborn child, man is also entitled to
parental leave to the same extent, if caring for a newborn
child. During
maternity leave (parental leave pursuant to paragraph 166 (1) of the Labour
Code), a female employee (male employee)
is not entitled to wage or wage
replacement, but to sickness benefit/maternity benefit.

215. In order to improve the care for a child, an employer is obliged to
provide the female/male employee with parental leave until
three years of the
child’s age at their request. If the child’s long-term health
condition is serious and requiring exceptional
care, the employer is obliged to
provide the female/male employee with parental leave until six years of the
child’s age at
their request. Such leave shall be provided to the extent
requested by the parent, typically for a period of one month at least.

216. If an employee returns to work following the end of his/her maternity
leave or parental leave, the employer shall be obliged
to assign such employee
to his/her original work position and workplace. If this is not possible because
such work position no longer
exists or the workplace was cancelled, the employer
must assign such employee to other work tasks that are in line with the
employment
contract.

Employment of children and adolescents

217. The employment of natural persons under 15 years of age, or of natural
persons over 15 years of age before they complete their
compulsory school
attendance, is prohibited. Such natural persons may perform only light work
which, by its nature and scope, does
not pose a risk to their health, safety,
further development and school attendance, and only as part of the following
activities:

• Taking part in a cultural performance and artistic performance

• Sports events

• Advertising activities

218. Light work must be approved, at the employer’s request, by the
respective labour inspectorate following an agreement with
the competent public
health body. The approval must specify the number of hours and conditions under
which the light work may be
performed. The competent labour inspectorate will
revoke the approval if the conditions are not observed.

219. The employer shall be obliged to keep records of adolescent employees
that the employer employs. The records shall also include
the dates of birth of
adolescent employees.

220. The employer shall be obliged to create favourable conditions for the
overall development of the physical and mental aptitudes
of adolescent
employees, including by means of making specific arrangements to their working
conditions. Upon resolving significant
matters concerning adolescents, employers
closely cooperate with the legal guardians of the adolescents.

221. The employer may only conclude an employment contract with an adolescent
upon medical examination of the adolescent (paragraph
41 of the Labour Code). An
employer is obliged to ensure that an adolescent employee is examined by a
physician before assignment
to other work tasks and that such examination is
taken, if necessary, at regular intervals of no less than once a year, unless
stipulated
otherwise in a separate regulation. An adolescent employee is obliged
to undergo the specified medical examinations. When assigning
work tasks to an
adolescent employee, the employer is also required to take due account of
medical opinions (paragraph 176 of the
Labour Code).

222. Information on the notice given to adolescent employees and on notice to
an adolescent employee regarding immediate termination
of his/her employment on
the part of the employer must also be submitted to his/her legal guardian. If
the employment is terminated
by notice given by an adolescent employee, by
immediate termination of the employment, during the probation period or if the
working
relationship is to be terminated by agreement, the employer is obliged
to request the opinion of the legal guardian (paragraph 172
of the Labour Code).

223. The employer may only assign adolescent employees to work tasks that are
appropriate to their physical and mental development
and do not pose a threat to
their morality, and is required to provide them with increased care at work. The
same applies to schools
or citizens’ associations pursuant to a special
regulation if, within the scope of their participation in the education of
young
people, they organise work of adolescents (paragraph 173 of the Labour
Code).

224. An employer may not assign adolescent employees to overtime work duties
or night work; stand-by duty may not be ordered to, or
agreed with them.
Exceptionally, adolescent employees above 16 years of age may perform night work
during a period of not more than
one hour, if it is necessary for their
vocational training. Night work performed by an adolescent employee must be
directly linked
to his/her work during the day according to the timetable of
work shifts.

225. An employer may not use such a method of remuneration for work that
would put, despite increased work performance, the safety
and health of
adolescent employees at risk.

226. If an employer is not allowed to assign an adolescent employee to work
for which he/she received a vocational education because
its performance is
prohibited for the adolescent employee or because, according to the medical
opinion, such work poses a threat
to his/her health, the employer is obliged,
for the period until the adolescent employee is able to perform such work, to
provide
him/her with other appropriate work that corresponds, where possible, to
his/her qualification (paragraph 174 of the Labour Code).

227. An adolescent employee may not be assigned to work underground in the
extraction of minerals or drilling of tunnels and passages.
An adolescent
employee may not be assigned to work which, taking into account the anatomic,
physiological and mental characteristics
specific for this age, is
inappropriate, dangerous or harmful for his/her health. The lists of work tasks
and workplaces that are
prohibited for adolescent employees are provided in
Government Regulation No. 286/2004 Coll. An employer may not assign adolescent
employees to work duties during the performance of which they are exposed to an
increased risk of accident or may seriously endanger
the safety and health of
fellow employees or other persons (paragraph 175 of the Labour Code).

228. The Criminal Code[33]
specifies a criminal offence of endangering moral education of young persons.
Imprisonment sentence of up to two years is imposed
on an offender who employs,
in contrast with generally applicable laws and regulations (Labour Code), a
child under 15 years of age,
while preventing the child to comply with
compulsory school attendance. For this criminal offence, the intent and the fact
that the
child was actually prevented from attending school, i.e. through
violence, threats, persuasion, etc., must be demonstrated. According
to the
comments to the Criminal Code, this criminal offence was defined in line with
the public interest to ensure healthy physical
and mental development of
children under fifteen years of age.

Article 11

Right to an adequate standard of living

Household income

229. Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon. The poverty monitoring and
evaluation in Slovakia is conducted in line with an “open
coordination” method developed at the European Union level in order to
provide guidance for Member States’ policies aimed
at combating poverty
and social exclusion, as well as for their policies in the filed of social
protection with the aim of meeting
one of the goals under the Lisbon strategy
– to considerably reduce poverty by 2010.

230. The poverty and social exclusion levels are measured using the EU
SILC[34] instrument. It represents a
harmonised source of information on income differences, level and structure of
poverty, and social exclusion.
The Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
collects the necessary information based on which it develops a user database
that
serves for the computation of common poverty indicators within the EU and
for research activities on various aspects of poverty.
First of all income
poverty is monitored, however data on material deprivation and social exclusion
in connection with education,
health, working conditions, social participation,
etc. are also collected.

231. Since 2001, the subsistence minimum has no longer any bearing on the
provision of assistance in material need, i.e. on guarantying
the minimum
income. However, the subsistence minimum still represents an amount officially
recognized as the lowest possible income
sufficient to ensure basic necessities
of households. Such a minimum income level should be sufficient for a joint
economic unit
to satisfy its basic necessities of life.

232. Under the Act on Subsistence Minimum, the subsistence minimum is
valorised annually, always by 1 July of a calendar year, based
on the index of
net per-capita income growth, or the-costs-of-living growth index for low-income
households. Both figures are collected
by the Statistical Office of the Slovak
Republic. The Act on Subsistence Minimum as such does not establish any
entitlement to any
social benefits; it only specifies criteria for the
determination of eligible beneficiaries and for the calculation of certain
allowances
or reductions in certain payments.

233. The subsistence minimum structure was revised in 2007. It turned out
that, in order to tie the subsistence minimum to the basic
necessities of
households or to the minimum acceptable living costs of households, it would be
necessary to improve statistics on
the expenses of low-income households and
develop a concept of the subsistence minimum that would reflect a multitude of
approaches
to its determination. The review outcomes also included a proposal to
increase the amounts of the subsistence minimum, since due
to the impacts of the
existing valorisation mechanism the subsistence minimum had lost its real value
over the period from 1998 to
2008. Other proposals concern modifications in the
valorisation mechanism and changes in equivalent units for the calculation of
subsistence minimum amounts for other jointly assessed household members.

234. Pursuant to the EU SILC 2007 results, 10.5 per cent of the total Slovak
population were at risk of poverty in 2006, down by 2.8
percentage points
compared to 2004, and down by 1.1 of a percentage point compared to 2005. Even
though the poverty line has increased,
the decline in the poverty risk rate
compared to the previous period is clearly evident.

235. The at-risk-of-poverty rate shows the proportion of people with income
below the poverty line, however it says nothing about
how poor such people are,
i.e. it does not show the depth or intensity of poverty. The at-risk-of-poverty
rate is a percentage of
persons with equivalised disposable income below a
poverty line which represents 60 per cent of median national equivalised income.
Simply speaking, it is a percentage of people in a country who live in
households with such low income that they are very likely
to be poor.

236. Population groups most vulnerable to poverty include the unemployed
(45.1 per cent), old-age pensioners (8 per cent), children
aged 0–15 (15.6
per cent), single-parent families with at least one dependent child (26 per
cent), and single-parent families
with three and more dependent children (26 per
cent). The figures in brackets show the percentage of persons below the poverty
line
based on the EU SILC data.

Table 11

The percentage of people below the poverty line for the 2005–07
period

Gender

Below poverty line (%) – EU SILC

2005

2006

2007

Total

13.3

11.6

10.5

Men

13.2

11.7

9.8

Women

13.5

11.5

11.2

Housing

237. Pursuant to the results of the latest population
census,[35] there were 1,884,846
flats in Slovakia in 2001, of which 1,665,536 were permanently occupied. Of the
permanently occupied flats,
845,494 were located in residential buildings and
820,042 in family houses.

238. The number of all flats per 1000 population stood at 350.4 in 2001,
while the number of permanently occupied flats was 309.6
per 1000 population. As
far as the housing pool structure broken down by the legal title to use flat is
concerned, 135,225 of all
permanently occupied flats were rented in 2001, while
248,531 were so-called cooperative flats.

239. Based on a statistical survey conducted in the sector in 2008, the
number of municipal rental flats stood at 47,000 as at 31
December 2007, while
housing cooperatives owned some 81,000 flats.

240. The Ministry of Construction and Regional Development in the capacity of
a central government authority competent for the preparation
and implementation
of national housing policy encourages housing development mainly through credit
and grant facilities. Within its
powers, the Ministry creates conditions for the
improvement in social housing availability, i.e. rental housing.

241. The Slovak Government addresses housing problems of socially vulnerable
population groups on a regular basis. “The Long-term
Housing Development
Concept for Marginalized Population Groups and the Model of its
Financing”[36] focuses on
seeking solutions to housing problems of communities facing social exclusion,
and represents a specific add-on to the
State housing policy.

242. As a follow up to the “Long-term Housing Development Concept for
Marginalized Population Groups and the Model of its Financing”,
the
Ministry of Construction and Regional Development had commissioned the
preparation of methodology guidelines entitled “Design
Procedures and
Model Projects for the Construction of Rental Flats of a Different
Standard”. The publication serves as a methodology
document for local
authorities, explaining the procedures, principles and rules for procuring and
financing project documentation
and for the construction of rental flats of a
different standard. The publication also includes nine model designs, which take
into
account the specificities of housing of marginalized population groups and
meet the requirements for the granting of subsidies for
rental flats of a
different standard.

243. In conformity with the objectives of the State housing policy concept,
the State has gradually developed a system of economic
support tools for housing
development, differentiated according to the social situation of applicants for
housing. Improvement in
housing availability for groups vulnerable to social
exclusion, marginalized Roma communities in particular, is sought through more
intensive support for rental housing development by means of higher financial
subsidies. Under the Housing Development Programme,
the Ministry of Construction
and Regional Development provides grants from its budgetary chapter to
municipalities and non-profit
organizations to finance the procurement of rental
flats with a limited surface area and price standard for socially vulnerable
population
groups, the procurement of rental flats of a different standard for
marginalized population groups, the building of technical infrastructure
necessary for the construction and utilisation of new flats and elimination of
system failures in residential houses. In the case
of standard flats, subsidies
between 20 and 30 per cent of total acquisition costs are provided, while in the
case of lower standard
housing it ranges from 75 to 80 per cent.

244. Another instrument that provides affordable loans to support the
construction of flats in residential buildings and family houses
is the State
Housing Development Fund. Loans are only provided to households with a set
maximum income and for a limited floor area
of the flat.

Right to adequate nutrition and to be free from hunger

245. In the 2002–08 period, the Slovak Republic paid considerable
attention to ensuring a right of an individual to nutrition.
The food security
was not put at risk in the Slovak Republic, however it should be noted that
dietary habits of the Slovak population
are not in line with the principles of a
healthy lifestyle. Despite some slight improvements in education towards healthy
eating,
Slovaks’ diet still remains excessive in energy and unbalanced in
nutrients caused by high fat intake (especially due to fast-food
eating, but
also hard cheeses, smoked meats, condiments), excessive sugar and salt intake,
low consumption of vegetables, fruit,
beans, milk and fish, as well as improper
liquid intake.

246. We wish to note that increased consumption of certain agricultural
commodities for production of bio-fuels occurred during the
period under review,
with a considerable impact on crop, and subsequently food, prices. Due to a
worsened economic situation, some
social groups could face the risk of
insufficient nutrition.

Table 12

Trends in the consumption of selected foodstuff in kilogram per
capita

Year

Consumption of selected foodstuff in kg per
capita

1990

2000

2006

Beef

21.8

9.1

5.3

Pork

44.5

33.1

32.2

Poultry

15.2

17.1

22.3

Milk and dairy products

226.3

160.2

152.4

Salt

6.4

6.0

6.7

Fruit and vegetables

100.6

94.2

88

247. In terms of food consumption development in Slovakia, an alarming drop
in the consumption of milk and dairy products (save for
fermented dairy
products) has occurred, having a negative effect on the optimum development of
young people, as well as other population
groups. The consumption of milk and
dairy products (exclusive of butter) by Slovak population of 152.4
kg/capita/year (2006 figure)
is far below the recommended intake of 220
kg/capita/year. It creates conditions for increased occurrence of osteoporosis
which represents
one of the most serious health risks of this century faced by
people in developed countries, according to WHO.

248. The consumption of vegetables, fruit, potatoes and beans is very poor on
a long-term basis and, accompanied by a decreasing consumption
of cereals,
leads, in addition to causing the lack of several important nutrition components
(vitamins, minerals and other important
natural substances with preventive
effects), to a very low intake of food fibres that have various prophylactic
properties against
so-called civilisation diseases.

249. A policy strategy on nutrition was produced in 2007 which defines tasks
and priorities for the Agricultural Ministry in order
to gradually change bad
dietary habits of the Slovak population, building on the European Union White
Paper on A Strategy for Europe
on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity related
health issues. The key objective of the strategy is to improve conditions for
satisfaction
of basic dietary needs while strengthening the prevention of
serious civilisation diseases among the Slovak population.

250. The Slovak Republic also promotes and develops agricultural systems that
contribute to most effective and sustainable development
and use of natural
resources. Such systems include, for example, a system of ecological agriculture
for the production of bio-products
and bio-foods which are crucial components of
a healthy diet.

251. In 2004–06, the ecological agriculture was supported under a Rural
Development Plan; further support was provided from
the Sectoral Operational
Programme “Agriculture and Rural Development”. Since 2007,
ecological agriculture has been supported
under the Rural Development Programme
for 2007–13. Bio-food production is on the rise. There were 55 bio-food
producers registered
in Slovakia as at May 2008, and 369 bio-farmers farming on
a total of 144,970 ha of agricultural land.

252. New agricultural systems, introduced in primary productions from 2002
onwards, are aimed at seeking technology and organization
solutions to problems
in livestock breeding (cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, poultry) with an emphasis put
on respecting their biological
needs, economic efficiency, productivity of
labour and ecological aspects of farming. New livestock breeding methods and
techniques
have been developed in order to increase efficiency and quality of
animal products while respecting ‘ecologisation’ and
sustainable
development adapted to the conditions in Slovakia.

253. Slovakia focuses on encouraging information society which enhances
competitiveness of European knowledge-based society. In order
to improve food
production, storage and distribution, Slovakia endorses life-long learning among
farmers, transfer of new research
and development knowledge into practice,
exchange of information on healthy diet principles, development and modification
of productive
systems that facilitate their efficient development along with
effective and environment-friendly utilisation of natural resources.
Between
2002 and 2008, agricultural research and scientific institutions conducted a
number of analyses, educational activities,
projects, scientific discussions
with particular conclusions and recommendations to be applied in practice,
implementing measures
in a decisive sphere, and measures for further development
of scientific and research activities in the relevant area.

254. Activities focused on the following issues and problems:

• Food production, storage, distribution and security –
professional qualification to work with and handle foodstuffs,
ecological
agriculture

• A comprehensive diet revitalisation programme for the Slovak
population – a nutrition strategy for the population, security,
nutrition
value, healthiness and hygienic quality of food

• Agricultural production systems in relation to the application of
European Union standards — modules — the environment;
human and
animal health, animal identification and registration; human, animal and plant
health; disease reporting; living conditions
for animals, animal welfare

• Addressing trade problems and market opportunities for Slovak agro
food products, position of the food industry within the
national economy

• Factors and activities required for sustainable and multifunctional
development in agriculture; development and implementation
of a modern precision
farming system in Slovakia; addressing the issue of differentiated efficiency in
agriculture and its production
sectors

• Research tasks aimed at maximising crop yields, increasing the
stress-resistance and improving quality of agricultural crops
grown on arable
land, including through cultivation and creation of new cultivars of main
agricultural crops giving higher yields
per hectare while having better
resistance to biotic (mainly diseases and pests) and abiotic (mainly drought,
low soil pH, cold,
etc.) stress, and higher
quality[37]

• The existing situation and outlook for technical and technological
organization of work processes in agriculture; development
of new or innovated
cropping systems and technologies for main agricultural crops in agricultural
practice, including soil protection
and alternative systems

• Anticipated global and regional climate changes, their potential
impact on water regime and agricultural industries –
elimination of
negative effects by means of suitable technology, nutrition, protection and
composition of crops

255. As far as international cooperation in relation to a fair distribution
of food supplies is concerned, Slovakia was actively involved
in the preparation
of global Voluntary Directives in Support of the Gradual Implementation of the
Right to Adequate Food in the Context
of National Food Security. The directives
were prepared and approved by the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2004. The
Slovak
Republic undertook commitments under the Millennium Development Goals
(combating hunger and malnutrition, in particular), as well
as commitments
arising from the World Food Summit Declaration and its revision after fiver
years (1996, 2002) with the aim of facilitating
progress and combat hunger and
malnutrition. Slovakia endorsed the conclusions of the High-Level Conference on
Global Food Security
(Rome, 2008) and participates in seeking solution to the
food crisis within Doha WTO negotiations. In a direct response to global
nutrition crises, the Slovak Republic provided humanitarian food aid; it also
makes voluntary contributions to the World Food Programme
every year.

Article 12

Right to physical and mental health

Provisions for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant
mortality and for the healthy development of the child

256. The number of artificial (induced) abortions has fallen in Slovakia by
76 per cent since 1990. A total of 11,971 abortions were
performed in 2005; less
than 10 abortions per 1,000 women of fertile age.

257. The number of women using a contraceptive (hormonal, mechanical, natural
birth control methods) has increased considerably. In
order to decriminalise
induced abortions, the Slovak Republic has also incorporated this issue into its
National Sexual and Reproductive
Health Protection Programme. The aim is to
provide access to safe induced abortion practices to all women in Slovakia.

258. In 2008, the Ministry of Health prepared a National Sexual and
Reproductive Health Protection Programme. The programme covers
all aspects of
sexual education and reproductive health with a special focus on marginalized
population groups in respect of which
specific tasks were adopted to eliminate
most serious problems occurring in such groups (high perinatal and infant
mortality rates,
high morbidity rates, early invalidism, etc.). The Government
has suspended discussion of this material and the National Programme
is still
pending adoption.

259. Under a finding of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic,
applicable Act No. 73/1986 Coll. on Artificial Termination
of Pregnancy and
Decree No. 74/1986 Coll. implementing the respective act do not comply with the
Constitution of the Slovak Republic. In light of the above facts, it was
necessary to draft and submit a new bill on induced termination of pregnancy.
The new act on induced abortions should bring the existing legislation into
compliance with the finding of the Constitutional Court
and preserve the
possibility to have an abortion until the 24th week of pregnancy where a foetus
has a congenital disorder. The new
act is currently undergoing an
inter-ministerial review procedure.

260. Under Act No. 576/2004 Coll. on Healthcare and Related Services and on
amendments to certain acts (“Healthcare Act”),
so-called baby
hatches were established upon initiative of the Šanca pre nechcených
(Chance for the Unwanted) civic association,
where mothers may leave their
newborn babies up to the sixth week after the birth without being subject to
criminal prosecution.
There are a total of 14 public incubators available in
Slovakia where mothers can leave their unwanted newborns. So far, 14 infants
have been surrendered to baby hatches. In three cases, mothers returned to claim
their children within a statutory prescribed period
of six weeks; the remaining
11 babies were put up for adoption after the expiry of the six-week period.
Thanks to the baby hatches,
the number of infant murders fell to minimum.
Pursuant to an amendment to the Criminal Code, a mother who leaves her baby in a
baby
hatch is not subject to criminal prosecution, since such conduct is not
deemed a crime. Of course, there are also other related legal
issues which
should be soon addressed in the Family Act, the Act on Register Offices,
etc.

261. The Healthcare Act also permits so-called anonymous births in which case
a woman who requests in writing that her identity is
concealed is entitled to
special protection of her personal data. The Act defines the manner and
conditions for the keeping of special
records in connection with anonymous
births and safeguarding the protection of personal data of the mother and her
newborn. A total
of 49 anonymous births have been requested up to the present
time.

262. Health conditions of Slovak children are comparable to those of children
in the European Union. Slovakia is witnessing a decline
in the cardio-vascular
mortality, deaths caused by external factors (injuries) and respiratory disease
mortality. Child mortality
is also falling, while life expectancy is increasing
both for men and women. A vaccination rate in Slovakia is higher than in other
European Union countries. Measures to eliminate shortcomings include mainly
investments in perinatal medicine and establishment of
specialized centres to
provide care to children (and partially to mothers too).

263. A clearly falling tendency in terms of (artificial) abortions can be
attributed to better knowledge, among the young people in
particular, of planned
parenthood, improved access to contraception and a conscious approach to family
planning. However, not all
figures on the quality of public health and
demographic development in the Slovak population are positive. Sociologists warn
mainly
of the ageing of the Slovak population (increase in the number of people
over 65), postponed families, especially in the case of
women with university
education, preferring career over parenthood, etc.

264. Natality-related demographic indicators and, above all, low birth-rates,
call for improvements in prenatal, natal and post-natal
care, especially in the
case of some marginalized population groups (Roma communities) which
considerably contribute to these negative
indicators. Several laws have been
adopted to address this situation, such as an amendment to the Healthcare Act
and to the Act on
Healthcare
Providers.[39]

265. The European strategy for child and adolescent health and development
has been incorporated in the National Programme for Children
and Adolescent
Protection for 2008–15.[40]
The purpose of the National Programme is to ensure adequate care for health and
development of children and adolescents in compliance
with the most recent
expertise and recommendations of the World Health Organization. The National
Programme has seven priority areas
for action: maternal and newborn health,
nutrition and physical activity, communicable diseases, injuries and violence,
physical
environment, adolescent health, and psychosocial development and mental
health.

266. Perinatal mortality, including stillbirths and newborns who die within
seven completed days of their life, stood at 6.10 per
mil. Slovakia is
unsuccessful in reducing its perinatal mortality rate, mainly due to the lack of
funds invested in perinatal medicine.
High infant mortality figures of
16–17 per mil, for example, are reported for certain regions (some
districts in eastern Slovakia)
with a larger concentration of Roma population.
The Roma-related problems, however, extend beyond the limits of health care, as
they
are rather of a social than medical nature, and require long-term
solutions. They result mainly from diseases caused by poor hygiene,
an
irresponsible approach by parents to prenatal health care and health care in
general, a low vaccination rate, etc.

267. According to the most recent data provided by the World Health
Organization, Slovakia’s total infant mortality rate is
6.59 per mil,
while under 15 mortality is 73.47 per mil, which places Slovakia at number five
in Europe.

268. A decline in the birth rate is a long-term trend in Slovakia. Over the
past 25 years, the birth rate dropped from 21.0 per mil
to 10.1 per mil in 2007,
the number of newborn children per year fell from 101,000 in the period of
1976–79 to 51,035 in 2002,
and then slightly increased to 54,631 in 2007.

269. An upward change in Slovakia’s birth rate began in 2003. In 2004,
53,958 children were born, up by 2,000 on the previous
year. In 2005, a total of
54,625 children were born; of those 54,430 were live births and 195
stillbirth.

270. The number of babies born outside marriage is raising; in 2004, there
were 13,319 (24.84 per cent) children born to unmarried
couples, in 2005 the
figure increased to 14,136 (26.0 per cent).

271. An increase in premature births occurred during the period under review
(4,069 in 2005 compared to 3,992 in 2004).

Table 13

Abortions per 1,000 women of fertile age (15–44)

Table 14

Development in basic demographic indicators

Table 15

Relation between live births and abortions

0

20 000

40 000

60 000

80 000

100 000

Numberof births

Number of abortions

1988

2000

2006

Down by 36 %

Down by 76 %

Table 16

Development in birth and abortion rates

Number of abortions

Number of births

0

10 000

20 000

30 000

40 000

50 000

60 000

70 000

80 000

90 000

1988

1994

2000

2006

0

10 000

20 000

30 000

40 000

50 000

60 000

70 000

80 000

90 000

1988

1994

2000

2006

Table 17

Development in live births and abortions within a territory

0

10 000

20 000

30 000

40 000

50 000

60 000

70 000

80 000

90 000

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

Rok

Number

Live births

Abortions

Table 18

Abortions per 100 births for 1989, 2000 and 2006

Number of abortions per 100 births

22

30

59,8

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1989

2000

2006

Table 19

Births to adolescent mothers

Number of births 93%

Births to adolescent mothers 7%

Table 20

0

50 000

100 000

150 000

200 000

250 000

300 000

350 000

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

No. of women using hormonal contraception

Number of women using hormonal contraception

Table 21

Maternal mortality rates

0,0

2,0

4,0

6,0

8,0

10,0

12,0

14,0

16,0

18,0

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

Year

Per 100,000 live births

Table 22

Development of perinatal and early infant mortality

Improvement of all aspects of external environment

272. The primary law concerning the use of waters with respect to health
protection is Act No. 355/2007 Coll. on the Protection, Support
and Development
of Public Health and on amendments to certain acts, as amended, and related
implementing regulations. Drinking water
requirements are further specified in
Government Regulation No. 354/2006 Coll. laying down requirements on water
intended for human
consumption and quality control of water intended for human
consumption. Criteria that must be met by open-air swimming pools (lidos)
are
set out in Government Regulation No. 87/2008 specifying requirements on open-air
swimming pools. All laws and regulations comply
with EU directives
98/83/EC[41] and
2006/7/ES.[42] Criteria applicable
to artificial swimming pools are defined by decree of the Ministry of Health No.
72/2008 specifying requirements
on the quality of water in swimming pools,
bathing water and its control, and on swimming pools.

273. The priority with respect to healthy drinking water supply to citizens
is to increase the number of population supplied with
healthy and quality
drinking water through public water distribution systems. Availability of
drinking water to Slovak citizens improved
in 2007 compared to the previous
year, with 86.5 per cent of Slovak population supplied by public water
distribution systems. However,
regional disparities still exist. While in the
Bratislava region drinking water is supplied through public distribution systems
to
95.6 per cent of its population, the figure for the Prešov region is
only 77.8 per cent. Significantly larger disparities can
be seen among
districts, where the figures range from below 60 per cent (Vranov nad
Topľou, Sabinov, Bytča, Košice
– surrounding) up to almost
a full saturation level (Bratislava, Prievidza, Martin, Banská Bystrica,
Partizánske).
In the capital of Bratislava, 99.9 per cent of its
population were connected to public water distribution systems.

274. The quality of water supplied to consumers is monitored by regional
public health offices in compliance with applicable laws
and regulations. Based
on the monitoring results, the quality of water in public distribution systems
is good. Limit values were
only exceeded in 3.17 per cent of laboratory tests
performed in 2007. If we consider only health risk indicators, the figure will
fall to 0.32 per cent of all tested samples. The water quality monitoring in
public water distribution systems indicates that limit
values have been most
frequently exceeded for iron and manganese; exceeding these indicators has no
adverse impacts on public health.

275. People in municipalities without a public water distribution system use
water from wells, whose quality does not meet the requirements
set for drinking
water. Problems are mainly with the poor microbiological quality in indicators
on general and excrement pollution,
and poor physical and chemical indicators
(turbidity, nitrates, nitrites, ammonium ions).

276. A more intensive use of individual water sources has been seen recently
even by households connected to a public water distribution
system; it is
probably caused by their effort to reduce water supply costs. The use of own
water sources, bottled water and other
types of beverage lead to a decline in
the consumption of water supplied by a public distribution system. Available
data indicate
an obvious decline in drinking water production and demand over
the recent years. Per capita consumption of drinking water has fallen
below 100
litres per day. A so-called hygienic minimum, ranging from 80 to 100
litres/person/day in individual countries, is defined
as the amount of water
necessary to satisfy basic human needs without negative impact on human health
and hygienic conditions. Some
Slovak districts report water consumption well
below the aforementioned level. In regions with poor social and economic
conditions,
people reduce the volume of water used for personal hygiene, which
may also have an adverse effect on their health. Tampering with
a drinking water
supply system (linking a drinking water supply network to an irrigation system)
resulted in an epidemic caused by
drinking water in Jaslovské Bohunice in
2007, with more than 100 people suffering from gastroenteritis.

Prevention, treatment and control of diseases

277. The Slovak Government has approved draft measures to eliminate risks in
the case of a flu pandemic.[43]
Based on these draft measures, a Government Pandemic Committee has adopted a
detailed plan of action in the case of an influenza
pandemic in the Slovak
Republic.

278. Another important achievement was the adoption of a Plan of actions to
be taken by the Slovak Republic in the case of the occurrence
of events subject
to the International Health Regulations (2005), or IHR, approved by the World
Health Organization.[44] The
material builds on the commitments that arise for Slovakia under the IHR and
focuses on the existing threats associated with
a possible spread of a hazardous
communicable disease on its territory.

279. The likelihood of occurrence of a hazardous communicable disease in
Slovakia is increasing. The increased risk stems from the
worldwide existence of
sources of dangerous infections, varied level of epidemiological measures
implemented in different countries,
different quality of the monitoring of
hygienic and epidemiological conditions, increasing migration, growing numbers
of persons
travelling by air and on business travels.

280. The current epidemiological situation with respect to incidents of
communicable diseases can be considered satisfactory. A positive
situation was
mainly with diseases that can be prevented by vaccination. A consistently
implemented National Immunisation Programme
has helped preserve and/or improve
previously achieved results. Vaccination rates for individual types of
infections were between
98 and 99 per cent, similarly as in previous years. No
incidents of measles, rubella, diphtheria, parotitis and poliomyelitis were
reported. Only a few sporadic incidents of whooping cough were detected.
Environmental poliomyelitis surveillance continued by testing
waste waters for
the presence of polioviruses. A moderate decline occurred in the cases of
salmonellosis and bacillus dysentery.
A slight improvement can also be seen in
the number of hepatitis A incidents. With respect to blood infections, an
increase occurred
in tick-born encephalitis, while the number of hepatitis B
incidents further dropped. The epidemiological situation in terms of
neuroinfections
is assessed as stable. Compared to 2007, a decline occurred in
the number of lyme diseases, tularaemia; no listeriosis incidents
were
reported.

281. Under the National Programme for the Fight against Drugs in conjunction
with the tasks under the National HIV/AIDS Prevention
Programme, Slovakia
systematically implements and evaluates accomplishment of the tasks set under
the Programme for Public Health
Protection among Drug Users. Concentrated effort
to perform these tasks contributes considerably to the fact the Slovakia has
virtually
the lowest number of HIV/AIDS infected persons, both among drug users
and the general population, of the entire European Union.

282. In addition to the aforementioned national programme, Slovakia has also
initiated, with the aim of preserving the positive situation
with respect to the
spread of HIV/AIDS infection, one of research objectives under the EU Action
Plan on Drugs to detect protective
factors preventing the propagation of
HIV/AIDS in countries with low HIV prevalence among drug users.

Table 23

Morbidity and mortality rates for diseases induced by HIV

0,00

0,05

0,10

0,15

0,20

0,25

0,30

0,35

0,40

0,45

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Mortality rate

Morbidity

Per 100,000 population

Medical services and medical attention for all

283. Pursuant to the Government’s Manifesto, health-care services are
provided to all citizens and persons who have permanent
residence or work in the
Slovak Republic in compliance with the Constitution and other laws and
regulations that govern the forms of the provision of health-care services and
accept, fully or partially, Commission
and Council directives.

284. Act No. 576/2004 Coll. on Healthcare was amended several times during
the reviewed period. Changes have been made to the provision
of medical services
with an emphasis put on the work of general practitioners who are also
responsible for patients when sending
them to specialists. The reinstatement of
so-called medical districts ensures medical services to everyone based on their
permanent
residence, while the freedom to choose a physician is still preserved.
The amendment has also introduced some changes with respect
to the keeping of
medical records: informed consent, access to medical records, new forms for the
keeping of medical records, in
an electronic format in particular. Modifications
have also occurred in collecting tissues for transplantation (cornea). Under the
amendment, no autopsy is required after the tissues for transplantation have
been collected. Considerable changes have also occurred
in the Health Sector
Information System, in particular with respect to the administration of national
registers.

285. Health care services are primarily focused on prevention in compliance
with the Act on the scope of health care covered by public
health insurance and
on the reimbursement of health care-related services provided by health-care
providers[45] and with the Act on
health-care providers, health professionals, and professional organizations in
health care.[46]

286. Health-care services are provided in the form of an outpatient care
– general practitioners for adults and general practitioners
for children
and adolescents. A new element in the work of general practitioners is their
greater responsibility for patients’
management (recommending patients for
medical examinations by specialists). Patients with chronic and systemic
diseases are provided
with dispensary care and regularly monitored, as
recommended by specialists and approved by a relevant health insurance
company.

287. Inpatient (hospital) care is provided by general hospitals, specialized
hospitals and specialized institutions. This has led
to significant improvements
in cardiology care and, partially, in oncology care as well.

288. New components of the State health policy include long-term national
programmes, both under preparation and already adopted,
such as the National
Programme for Children and Adolescents, the National Transplantation Programme,
the National Mental Health Programme,
the National Programme for Obesity
Prevention, the National Immunisation Programme, etc.

289. Slovakia’s health policies and national programmes include
specific tasks pertaining to the provision of health-care services
to
marginalized groups of population which require a special approach, such as Roma
communities – Roma assistants serving as
a link between the Roma
population and health-care providers.

290. A completely new element in the provision of health-care services is
cooperation in the provision of cross-border health-care
services (necessary
health care and long-term health care provided to all European Union citizens;
the same treatment is provided
to Slovak nationals in other EU countries). A
separate chapter within the cross-border health services is the provision of
highly
specialized health care (reference centres for the provision of highly
specialized health care). The goal is to provide efficient,
quality and safe
health-care services to all EU citizens.

Article 13

Right to education

Elementary and secondary education

291. Act No. 245/2008 Coll. on Training and Education and on amendments to
certain acts (“School Act”) was adopted with
effect from 1 September
2008. The School Act also launched a content transformation of regional
education system. The Act defines
the principles, objectives, conditions, scope,
content, forms and organizational structure of the educational process in
schools
and school facilities, levels of education, admission to and termination
of the educational process, duration and performance of
compulsory education,
national curriculum and individual curricula, the system of schools and school
facilities, etc.

292. Slovakia’s education system is built on the principles of
free-of-charge education provided to children in kindergartens
one year prior to
the first year of their compulsory education, and free-of-charge education
provided in elementary and secondary
schools founded by a general government
authority for education, central government body or regional/local authority
(State schools);
schools and school facilities are equal irrespective of their
founder; no differences are made between education obtained at State
schools,
schools founded by an official church or religious community (church schools)
and schools founded by a private natural or
legal person (private schools);
children, their parents/legal guardians have a free choice of education, taking
into account the
expectations and faculties of children and students, in line
with the possibilities of the education system; all forms of discrimination,
including segregation, are prohibited.

293. Compulsory education starts at the beginning of the school year that
follows after the day on which a child has attained six
years of age and
educational capability. Compulsory education has a duration of ten years and
lasts not longer than until the end
of that school year in which the child has
attained 16 years of age. No one is exempt from compulsory education.

294. Compulsory education is provided at elementary and secondary schools and
at schools for students with special educational needs.
The legal guardian is
obliged to enrol the child into an elementary school within the set deadline,
i.e. from 15 January to 15 February,
prior to the beginning of the school year
in which the child must commence its compulsory education.

295. Students can be admitted to a secondary school after they have attained
lower secondary education and met admission procedure
criteria. A decision on
the admission of applicants to a secondary school is made by a headmaster based
on the results of an admission
procedure. The system of secondary schools, as
defined in the School Act, comprises grammar schools, secondary professional
schools
and conservatories. The (upper) secondary education is further governed,
with effect from 1 September 2008, by decrees issued by
the Ministry of
Education.[47]

Higher education

296. Tertiary (university) education is governed by Act No. 131/2002 Coll. on
Universities and amendments to certain acts, as amended
(“University
Act”).The University Act provides that Slovak citizens, citizens of other
EU Member States and third-country
citizens have a right to take a study
programme of their choice at a university if they meet the minimum admission
requirements.
It also specifies the basic admission requirements. One of the
basic requirements is the recognition of diploma for academic purposes
issued by
a foreign university. The university may specify further admission criteria.

297. The University Act also addresses tuition and other fees charged by
public universities. The following provisions apply to foreign
nationals
studying at public universities: A public university may require tuition fees in
a special amount from foreign nationals
who are non-EU citizens, or who have no
permanent residence in an EU Member State, even for a standard duration of
university studies.
Where students under inter-State agreements are involved,
tuition and other related fees are governed by the provisions of such applicable
agreements.

298. An amendment to the University Act has introduced changes in payment of
tuition fees both for full-time and distance (extramural)
students. As regards
study programmes for full-time students, provisions have been made more specific
with respect to the amount
of a tuition fee if a student is taking a programme
of a given level in excess of its standard duration. A tuition fee has been
introduced
in cases where a student is simultaneously taking two or more
programmes of a given level; students have a right to choose which
of the
programmes will be tuition free, provided that they are entitled to tuition free
studies, i.e. they have not exceeded the
standard duration of university
studies. As regards extramural studies, programmes have been introduced for
which a tuition fee is
charged, and programmes that are tuition free for the
period of the standard duration of studies.

Table 24

Schools, classes, students in the 2007/08 school year –
full-time

Type of school

Total

% girls of the total number of students

Schools

Classes

faculties

departments

Children, pupils, students

Total

Of which: girls

Kindergartens

2 910

6 739

139 374

67 140

48.17

Elementary x/

2 254

23 648

485 018

236 351

48.73

Elementary arts schools

268

x

122 278

84 211

68.87

Grammar schools

252

3 523

99 915

58 228

58.28

Secondary specialized and specialized schools in total

212

2 528

68 320

36 950

54.08

Of that:

Technical

65

996

26 736

6 996

26.17

Economic

98

1 086

30 666

22 304

72.73

Agricultural

15

143

3519

1 998

56.78

Forestry

2

19

514

91

17.70

Librarian

1

13

373

265

71.05

Pedagogical

15

145

3 779

3 477

92.01

Conservatories

13

103

2 108

1 221

57.92

Girls’ schools

3

23

625

598

95.68

Plus:

Ministry of Health

30

302

7 482

6 319

84.46

Other ministries

2

26

587

103

17.55

Secondary school centres

137

2 977

75 793

36 782

48.53

Secondary vocational schools and apprentice centres

181

2 160

51 882

14 076

27.13

Special schools in total

394

3 637

34 351

14 301

41.63

Of which:

Kindergartens

40

107

853

340

39.86

Elementary and special elementary

238

2 910

28 060

11 666

41.58

Grammar schools

2

7

60

38

63.33

Secondary specialized schools

6

26

192

124

64.58

Secondary vocational schools

13

86

712

314

44.10

Vocational schools and apprentice centres

48

414

3 908

1 546

39.56

Practical schools

47

87

566

273

48.23

Plus schools at health-care facilities

64

220

2 117

1 024

48.37

Tertiary schools (TS), stage I and II

28

116

132 499

73 917

55.79

Tertiary schools, stage III (PhD.)

x

x

3 940

1 957

49.67

TS under other ministries, stage I and II

3

6

1 393

706

50.68

TS under other ministries, stage I II

x

x

0

0

0.00

Table 25

Teachers in the 2007/08 school year

Type of school

Total

% women of the total number of full-time
teachers

% women

of the total number of part-time teachers

Full-time

Part-time

Total

Of which: women

Total

Of which: women

Teachers in total, TS excl.

71 486

59 541

12 980

7 969

83.29

61.39

Kindergartens

13 164

13 157

.

.

99.95

.

Elementary

30 449

25 986

5 184

2 930

85.34

56.52

Elementary arts schools

3 335

2 324

2 143

1 372

69.69

64.02

State language and language schools

216

193

475

384

89.35

80.84

Special schools (kindergartens, elementary, special elementary)

3 956

3 444

219

160

87.06

73.06

Special secondary

481

333

128

87

69.23

67.97

Grammar schools

6 894

5 126

1 537

978

74.35

63.63

Technical schools

2 209

1 319

592

315

59.71

53.21

Economic schools

2 329

1 892

709

533

81.24

75.18

Agricultural schools

294

175

121

70

59.52

57.85

Forestry schools

53

15

4

2

28.30

50.00

Librarian schools

26

21

2

2

80.77

100.00

Pedagogical schools

305

248

160

124

81.31

77.50

Conservatories

406

243

400

210

59.85

52.50

Girls’ schools

35

28

46

34

80.00

73.91

Secondary school centres

4 884

3 439

691

419

70.41

60.64

Secondary vocational schools

2 450

1 598

569

349

65.22

61.34

Plus

At health facilities

249

231

10

8

92.77

80.00

Ministry of Health

719

621

527

393

86.37

74.57

Other ministries

154

43

7

3

27.92

42.86

Tertiary schools

9 510

4 171

2 111

847

43.86

40.12

TS under other ministries

382

156

191

79

40.84

41.36

Programmes for uneducated persons

299. An elementary school may organise educational programmes for individuals
who have not attained the lower secondary education
to attain the respective
level of education; such programmes end with an examination by a commission in
all subjects, except for
“didactical” subjects (paragraph 30 (5) of
the School Act). The programmes may be delivered in an intramural (full-time)
or
extramural form. The length of a course is determined by a headmaster based on
the level of education attained by a respective
person; however, it may not be
longer than one school year.

School system development

300. In order to pursue the development of a system of schools, a system of
scholarships and other assistance is legislatively established
by the following
laws and regulations:

• Act No. 600/2003 Coll. on the Child Benefit and on amendments to Act
No. 461/2003 Coll. on Social Insurance

• Decree of the Ministry of Education No. 453/2005 Coll. on the scope
and other details concerning the granting of incentive
scholarships

• Decree of the Ministry of Education No. 102/2006 Coll. on the
granting of social scholarships to university students

301. An amendment to the University
Act[48] has specified in more detail
the eligibility criteria for social scholarships. Formerly, students were
ineligible for a social scholarship
when “re-taking the same year”.
Under the amended Act, students are entitled to a social scholarship for the
entire standard
duration of a respective study programme, i.e. even if they have
“to do a re-take”; they are ineligible for the scholarship
in the
last year of a respective study programme. The decree on the granting of social
scholarships to university students has introduced
changes in the definition of
persons assessed along with a scholarship applicant, income assessment method,
determination of a decisive
and threshold income, all of which are instruments
for the determination of a social scholarship amount. The former
decree[49] included fixed social
scholarships in the amount of SKK 1,000; SKK 1,500 and SKK 2,000. Currently,
social scholarships can be granted
within the range from SKK 300 to SKK 7,200
(or SKK 7,500 from 1 September 2008), also depending on the amount of the
subsistence
minimum.

302. The decree on the granting of incentive
scholarships[50] was repealed by an
amendment to the University Act. Incentive scholarships from the State budget
are currently granted in compliance
with scholarship rules – internal
regulations issued by respective universities. The Ministry of Education
provides financial
resources in such an amount that 10 per cent of full-time
students can be granted an incentive scholarship of SKK 15,000 per academic
year.

303. An incentive contribution subsidy may be granted to a child in order to
prevent its social exclusion. An application for the
incentive contribution
subsidy may be submitted by a) a school founding authority, with the exception
of a regional school office;
b) a municipality, based on the seat of the school,
where the school is founded by a regional school office; c) a civic association
that includes parents or other legal guardians of the children, and friends of
school, where the school is founded by the regional
school office. The subsidy
can not be granted for a child who neglects its compulsory education duties, has
flunked a grade, or whose
conduct was downgraded two levels in a previous school
year.[51]

304. In connection with a school system reform, the Ministry of Education is
currently working on the following laws:

• An act on the status of pedagogical staff

• An act on professional training

• An act on life-long learning

Freedom to choose a school

305. Private and church schools are permitted under paragraph 19 of Act No.
596/2003 Coll. on the State administration in the system
of schools and the
school self-administration and on amendments to certain acts, as amended. In the
2007/08 school year, the school
and school facility network included:

• 235 church schools (without school facilities) – founded by an
official church or religious community

306. Education and training in Slovakia is based on the following
principles:

• Schools and school facilities are equal irrespective of their
founder

• No differences are made between education obtained at State schools,
schools founded by an official church or religious community
and schools founded
by a private natural or legal person

307. Religious education or religious instruction is taught at schools in
compliance with the law, with the exception of basic artistic
schools and
language schools. Religious education in kindergartens is permitted. Teaching is
provided by official churches and religious
communities. Religious education,
offered as an alternative to ethics education, is one of the compulsory optional
subjects at elementary
and secondary schools and is included in the national
curricula.

Article 15

Right to cultural life and scientific progress

308. The Slovak Republic submitted to the Committee for the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination its joint sixth, seventh
and eighth periodic
report under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination in June 2008. Chapter 7
of the aforementioned report describes in
more detail particular measures implemented in the area of culture for the
prevention and
protection from racial discrimination in the field of national
minority cultures.

Right to take part in cultural life

309. The right to access to cultural wealth is guaranteed under article 43 of
the Slovak Constitution: Freedom of scientific research and freedom of artistic
expression shall be guaranteed. Rights to the results of creative, intellectual
activity are protected by the law. The right to access to cultural wealth is
guaranteed under the conditions prescribed by the law.
The right to the
protection of cultural heritage is laid down by article 44 (2) of the
Constitution: Everyone shall have a duty to protect and improve the environment
and to foster cultural heritage.

310. A Slovak library system consists of the Slovak National Library in
Martin, 9 scientific libraries (universal and specialized),
37 academic
libraries, 2,153 public libraries (municipal, regional), 4,913 school libraries,
and 347 special libraries. Library and
information services and access to
information are provided mainly through networks of public, scientific and
academic libraries.
The largest is the network of public libraries. In many
Slovak municipalities, a library is often the only cultural facility.

311. Following the decentralisation process, municipal and school libraries,
especially in smaller municipalities, have merged to
form so-called combined
libraries that can better satisfy local citizens’ and students’
library and information needs.
The Ministry of Culture is a founder of six
libraries, the Slovak National Library in Martin, 4 universal scientific
libraries[52] and 1 specialized
library,[53] which provide
nation-wide library and information services for the visually impaired.

312. Three libraries fall within the founding authority of other central
government bodies (two are founded by the Ministry of Education
and one by the
Ministry of Health), one library is founded by the Slovak Academy of Sciences
and 37 are founded by higher territorial
units. Remaining libraries were
established by municipal authorities and other legal persons. This overview does
not include libraries
that do not provide their services to the general public
and serve solely as a reference library for the internal purposes of an
institution and its staff.

313. The Slovak Register of Museums and Art Galleries includes 93 museums,
while the number of publicly accessible museums and gallery
exhibitions is much
larger – 400 in total (both registered and non-registered). Museums can be
founded by State authorities
and organizations, higher territorial units
(self-governing regions), municipalities and other legal and natural persons.
Museums
established by the Ministry of Culture represent the country’s
major collecting institutions including the Slovak National
Museum in
Bratislava, the Slovak Technical Museum in Košice, and the Museum of Slovak
National Uprising in Banská Bystrica.
In addition, 13 specialized
museums, so-called ministerial,[54]
are run by other central government bodies. Self-governing regions operate 37
museums, most of which are specialized in national
history and geography.
Municipal authorities are founders of 19
museums.[55]

314. The Register of Museums and Art Galleries includes 25 galleries: the
Slovak National Gallery is founded by the Ministry of Culture,
17 are founded by
self-governing regions, 6 by municipal
authorities[56] and one is a
private-owned gallery. The Slovak National Gallery is the country’s
supreme collecting, science and research,
methodical, and cultural and
educational institutions with respect to gallery activities. None of the
founders runs duplicate galleries.

315. The Ministry of Culture operates two nation-wide edification
institutions – the National Culture Centre in Bratislava and
the Slovak
Central Observatory in Hurbanovo.

316. Specialized edification facilities include seven
planetariums[57] and 17
observatories,[58] founded by
self-governing regions. Only two of the planetariums function as independent
entities, the remaining five operate within
the aforementioned observatories.
From 1996, the Slovak Central Observatory Hurbanovo also functions as a National
Methodical Centre
for a network of Slovak astronomy facilities.

317. The National Culture Centre is a national cultural institution, the
supreme State institution in the area of edification and
information activities.
It functions as a scientific and educational institution in culture. The centre
performs a wide range of
diverse theoretical, conceptual, advisory, educational,
information, documentation, research and analytical, publishing, presentation,
promotional and organizational activities. It safeguards, encourages and
protects intellectual development of the citizens and a
live non-professional
culture which forms a part of intangible cultural heritage.

318. As regards cultural education, the National Culture Centre carries out
projects and leisure education activities as part of life-long
learning.
Accredited and non-accredited forms of cultural education (creative workshops,
trainings, seminars, courses, etc.) are
designed for employees and volunteers in
State administration, regional and local authorities, the third and private
sector.

319. During the period under review, the National Culture Centre carried out
several international projects: Days of Traditional Culture
in cooperation with
V4 countries, a drug prevention project entitled Prečo som na svete
rád/rada (Why I’m happy in the world) supported by the Antidrug
Fund, the festival of cross-border cooperation — Novohrad Folklore
Festival, Slovak Days in UNESCO — a programme in the UNESCO’s Paris
headquarters and the Museum of World Cultures. The
National Culture
Centre’s priorities also include educational projects supported from the
European Social Fund – Distance
learning in local and regional culture;
Acquiring new cultural skills; Capacity development for ministry’s
employees.

320. The Centre’s research activities focus primarily on developing and
finding views and opinions on developments in Slovak
culture. It carries out
research studies concerning a multifunctional analysis of Slovak public
expenditures in relation to the Council
of Europe member states. The Centre is
also involved in database generation and prepares inputs for the Register of
Cultural Events,
Traditional Folk Culture Database which contains 679
organizational units, for example 1,786 personalities, 1,777 events, etc. The
Register of Cultural Activities for 2006 contains 789 organizations and 7,110
events.

Minority cultures

321. Minority culture is supported through grant programmes provided within a
grant system of the Ministry of Culture; the goal of
these programmes is to
develop, preserve and present minority cultures. Minority cultures are promoted
mainly through the support
to periodic and non-periodic press for members of
national minorities, State theatres staging plays in languages of national
minorities,
State museums focused on the issue of minorities, civic associations
that promote all 12 minority cultures, through activities of
the professional
folklore ensembles, regional cultural and educational centres, regional and
district libraries, and through programmes
aired by public media — the
Slovak Radio and the Slovak Television (STV) — in languages of national
minorities.

322. In the course of 2003, the Ministry of Culture worked on improvements in
legislation to protect minority cultures. It was preparing
background documents
to two acts – the Act on the Status of National Minorities and the Act on
the Funding of Minority Cultures.
However, the responsibility for the
preparation of the Act on the Status of National Minorities was later
transferred to a Deputy
Prime Minister for European Integration, Human Rights
and Minorities. In cooperation with a Deputy Prime Minister for European
Integration,
Human Rights and Minorities, the Ministry of Culture drafted the
Act on the Funding of Minority Cultures in 2004. The draft was submitted
for an
inter-ministerial review procedure. The then Coalition Council decided not to
submit the draft act to the Government. In 2003,
with regard to the application
of Act No. 184/1999 Coll. on the Use of Minority Languages, the Ministry of
Culture drafted background
documents for the preparation of a new government
regulation laying down the list of municipalities where national minority
members
make up at least 20 per cent of their population.

Fostering traditional folk culture

323. Development of traditional folk, local and regional cultures is among
the priorities of the Ministry of Culture. Respective tasks
are specified in
more detail in the Government Manifesto for 2006–10. In 2007, the
Government approved a draft Concept for
the Protection of Traditional Folk
Culture.[59] Slovakia acceded to
major UNESCO documents, e.g. the Convention for the Safeguarding of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Convention
on the Protection and Promotion of
the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the Recommendation for the Safeguarding
of Traditional
Culture and Folklore, concerning the issues of traditional folk
culture and undertook to implement recommendations contained therein,
including
reporting on adopted measures and their fulfilment. The Concept for the
Protection of Traditional Folk Culture is one of
the underlying documents that
contribute to meeting Slovakia’s obligations under the aforementioned
international instruments.
The goal of the Concept is to create such conditions
for the protection of traditional folk culture that it could be preserved in
its
natural environment, that it would not disappear from the cultural consciousness
of Slovak citizens, and that it would be protected
institutionally and
accessible for current and future generations.

324. The protection of local and regional culture is addressed by the Concept
for the Development of Local and Regional
Culture.[60] The Concept was
prepared in close cooperation between the National Culture Centre and the
Association of Slovak Towns and Municipalities
(ZMOS). Background materials were
produced based on a detailed analysis of the situation, instruments and trends
existing in the
area of regional and local culture and self-administration,
enhanced by collaboration and coordinated cooperation at all levels of
public
administration. The Concept represents a consolidated underlying and framework
document which defines major problems and needs
with respect to local and
regional culture development and, at the same time, suggests possible solutions
in this area by means of
a range of standard and innovative instruments. The
Concept specifies individual levels for cultural development, from a nation-wide
through regional to local, describes a basic network of cultural institutions
and cultural infrastructure and identifies competencies
and tasks of the public
administration and other local and regional culture actors. It defines their
mutual links and relations.
Two tasks are currently being performed under the
Concept for the Development of Local and Regional Culture: to submit, at a
Government
session, a draft Public Awareness Raising Strategy and a draft
Strategy for the Development of Local and Regional Culture.

325. In order to improve protection of cultural heritage and sites the State
initiate a “Obnovme si svoj dom” (Let’s
Revive Our House)
programme, implemented under a grant system of the Ministry of Culture. It
represents a new form of allocation
of State budgetary funds. Adoption of Act
No. 49/2002 Coll. on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage Objects is also,
beyond any
doubt, a notable legislative change which creates conditions for the
protection of and access to the cultural heritage of the State
and for
improvements in the cultural life of its citizens. Gradual changes, especially
under the public administration reform, and
more powers granted to higher
territorial units (regions), towns and municipalities provide new opportunities
for the protection
of Slovakia’s cultural values and enhance
citizens’ rights to take part in cultural life. Full enjoyment by the
citizens
of cultural life is often affected not only by the conditions created
by the State but also by those provided by regional and local
authorities. An
improved social and economic situation in society has positive impacts on
individuals who can afford to spend more
of their money and time on cultural
activities.

Media

326. Pursuant to Act No. 308/2000 Coll. on Broadcasting and Retransmission
and on amendments to Act No. 195/2000 Coll. on Telecommunications,
as amended, a
public broadcaster (Slovak Television – STV) is obliged to ensure that a
non-digital TV programme service broadcasted
nation-wide provides at least:

• 25 per cent of all programmes with closed or open captioning in each
of such programme service

• 1 per cent of all programmes translated into or broadcasted in sign
language, at least in one of such programme services

327. The Slovak Television complies with the aforementioned obligation; in
2006, 2.41 per cent of programmes were translated into
sign language and 28.04
per cent were captioned.

328. Act No. 220/2007 Coll. on Digital Broadcasting of Programme Services and
on Provision of other Content Services through Digital
Transmission and on
amendments to certain acts (“Digital Broadcasting Act”) amended the
Act on Broadcasting and Retransmission
and introduced new obligations for the
broadcasters concerning closed and open captioning, translations into sign
language and audio
description in digital services. These obligations do not
apply for a three year period from the date when a broadcaster started
providing
is programme service in a digital format. The aforementioned transition period
does not apply to broadcasters which commence
digital broadcasting after 31 May
2009.

329. Obligations of the Slovak Television (STV):

(a) 50 per cent of all programmes with closed or open captioning;

(b) 3 per cent of all programmes translated into or broadcasted in sign
language;

(c) 20 per cent of all programmes with audio description.

330. Obligations of licensed broadcasters (not applying to local broadcasting
and broadcasting to foreign countries):

(a) Ten per cent of all programmes with closed or open captioning, or
translated into or broadcasted in sign language;

(b) Three per cent of all programmes with audio description.

331. The Digital Broadcasting Act provides a stable legislative framework for
a transition from analogue to digital terrestrial TV
broadcasting without
adversely affecting the rights of TV broadcasters which now use analogue
frequencies. The approved legislation
should create a stable environment for
digital broadcasting in Slovakia and safeguard conditions for an unrestricted
provision of
content services through digital transmission, which would not
thwart development of potential digital platforms. When implemented
thoroughly,
it should ensure that users with disabilities receive services in standard
quality.

332. Under the Act on Payments for Public Services provided by the Slovak
Television and the Slovak Radio,[61]
exemptions apply to natural persons who live in a single household with a person
with severe disability, or who are persons with
severe disability. In addition,
payments are reduced by 50 per cent for pension beneficiaries who do not share
the household with
a person with a regular occupational income, and for
recipients of material-need benefits or persons assessed along with such a
recipient.

333. Audio-visual works, Slovak films from the Slovak Film Institute edition,
include foreign language captioning, as well as Slovak
subtitles for deaf and
hearing-impaired people.

334. From its “Audiovízia” grant scheme, the Ministry of
Culture provides financial support for production and
development of audiovisual
works, post-production, distribution and presentation of audiovisual works. The
aforementioned grant scheme
could also provide funding for the production of
audio descriptions to audiovisual works, or closed and open captioning for
hearing-impaired
people, but only in direct connection with the production of a
particular audiovisual work within the project for which a grant is
requested,
i.e. a grant applicant may request a subsidy for captioning (item: services
related to project implementation, i.e. contracted
services, of that e.g.
captioning) as part of eligible costs of production (development, production,
post-production) of an audiovisual
work, or for captioning equipment (item:
equipment rental, of that e.g. captioning equipment).

335. In May 2006, the Government approved a project for the systematic
protection and recovery of audiovisual cultural heritage with
the aim of
preserving major repositories of cinematographic and audiovisual works and
archive materials and making them available
to public. An act on the conditions
for registration, public distribution and storage of audiovisual works,
multimedia works and
audio recordings of artistic performances was drafted in
compliance with the project
objectives.[62] Having adopted the
aforementioned legislation, Slovakia created conditions for the safeguarding of
Slovak audiovisual heritage as
part of the world’s cultural heritage in
connection with its FIAF membership (International Federation of Film Archives).
On
10 May 2007, the Slovak Parliament approved the European Convention for the
Protection of the Audiovisual Heritage and the Protocol
on the Protection of
Television Productions to the European Convention on the Protection of the
Audiovisual Heritage. The European
Convention became effective on 1 January
2008.

Right of an individual to benefit from the protection of the moral and
material interests resulting from any scientific, literary
or artistic
production of which he/she is the author

336. A new amendment to the Copyright
Act,[63] in force since 1 January
2004, is a primary document comprehensively regulating copyright and rights
related to copyright, reflecting
developments in international copyright
agreements and treaties,[64]
including the EU laws in this area.

337. It complies with intellectual property laws commonly applied in
countries with advanced economy. Emergence of a single market
and new
technologies for cross-border dissemination of intangible intellectual works
have resulted in more intensive efforts for
harmonisation of intellectual
property rights at the international and regional level. As far as the concept
of intellectual property
rights is concerned, the Slovak legislation complies
with the “continental” interpretation of the law under which a right
to products of intellectual activity is awarded to a natural person and included
among basic human rights.

338. The intellectual property rights are inalienable by nature and cannot be
waived. Unlike the pervious legislation, under which
personality and property
rights constituted a indivisible unit, including in terms of their assignment in
the case of death, the
new amendment builds on the concept of dualism in
personality and property rights. In line with this interpretation, personality
rights cease to exist upon death of an individual (mortis causa) and
property rights are transferred to his heirs.

339. In order to bring together copyright laws, included in two separate
legal regulations so far, the amended Copyright Act also
governs collective
management of rights, thus laying down a uniform legal framework for copyright
and rights related to copyright,
including a sui generis right to databases
content and collective management of rights.

340. The amendment to the Copyright Act, in force from 1 March 2007, resulted
from Slovakia’s obligation to transpose Directive
2004/48/EC[65] of the European
Parliament and of the Council into Slovak legislation. The aim of the Directive
is to harmonise national legislations
concerning the enforcement of intellectual
property rights in general, and pertains primarily to copyright and related
rights, and
industrial property rights. It also considerably affects civil
judicial proceedings. Its purpose is to remove the existing differences
in
national legislations for the enforcement of intellectual property rights in
individual Member States, which represent a major
obstacle for the development
of the internal market, and to prevent counterfeiting, piracy and other
violations of intellectual property
rights.

341. The Copyright Act was amended to ensure a level of protection which
complies with the current high standards and attempts at its harmonisation,
including
the enforcement of intellectual property rights both on the
international and regional level, namely in connection with the internal
market
development and free movement of goods and services involving objects protected
by intellectual property rights, which are
continuously affected by
technological advancement that enables cross-border dissemination of
intellectual works in an intangible
format.[66]

The development of international cultural relations

342. The basic mission of international activities is presenting Slovak
culture abroad, attracting partners for cooperation and initiating
projects at
the level of the government, the region and the local level. It is a systemic
initiative to create a broad facilitating
cultural and social environment for
Slovak culture within international relations.

343. In bilateral relations, this mainly includes preparing international
treaties and agreements both at the governmental and sectoral
levels –
drafting, implementing and preparing new projects under such instruments with
the most important countries through
inter-governmental commissions and mixed
expert commissions, activities of State cultural institutions as well as
facilitating cultural
exchanges in all areas of culture at all levels.
Activities also include cooperation with neighbouring countries, European Union
member States, most important G7 States and presentation of Slovak culture by
participating in international festivals, symposia
and congresses.

III. Concluding recommendations of the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights

The Committee recommends formulating and implementing a comprehensive
national plan of action for the promotion and protection of
human rights, as
recommended in paragraph 71 of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
adopted in 1993. The Committee requests
the State party to include a copy of its
national plan of action and information on its implementation in its next
periodic report.

345. In the area of prevention and reduction of negative phenomena such as
racism, xenophobia, intolerance or discrimination in society,
the core systemic
instrument available to the Government of the Slovak Republic is the Action Plan
for the Prevention of All Forms
of Discrimination, Racism, Xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and Other Expressions of Intolerance that has been regularly drawn
up since
2000.

346. The action plan is a specific extensive initiative of the Government of
the Slovak Republic in the protection and enforcement
of human rights and it is
also presented as such abroad. In addition to addressing the most urgent
problems of society, the action
plan also pursues long-term objectives in an
effort to combat the abovementioned negative phenomena in society with a view to
enhancing
the degree of tolerance among all persons living in Slovakia,
including foreign nationals. Activities carried out, in parallel to
those of
State authorities, by non-governmental organizations or other entities active in
this field, which significantly promote
the dissemination of values of
tolerance, multiculturalism and non-discrimination in society, are an important
component of the action
plan.

347. The 2002–2003 action plan focused on preventing negative phenomena
such as discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and other
similar intolerance in
society and on strengthening the legal awareness of Slovak citizens in the area
of effective use of protective
measures.

348. The 2004–2005 action plan mainly focused on systemic education of
persons belonging to professional groups who are able
to influence the
prevention of all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and
other expressions of intolerance
in the exercise of their profession; systemic
education and opinion-making activities of the representatives of State
administration
and self-governments and primary school pupils and secondary
school students with respect to migrants; social and cultural activities
on
human rights and prevention of all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and other expressions of intolerance.
This action plan is the
response by the Slovak Republic to the declaration of the Second 2005–2014
United Nations Decade for
Human Rights Education and to Slovakia’s
obligations arising from its membership in the European Union and other
international
organizations.

349. The 2006–2008 action plan (see annex 2) is targeted to raising
knowledge among the citizens of the Slovak Republic on human
rights; effective
implementation of antidiscrimination legislation; addressing the status of
migrants in Slovakia as well as other
specific activities in the field of
prevention of negative phenomena in society. Its priorities are complemented
with activities
in the area of preventing extremism and anti-Semitism mainly by
educating professional groups. The focus on education builds on the
current
Decade for Human Rights Education.

350. The 2006–2008 action plan priorities include:

• Regular training for members of professional groups who, in the
discharge of their professional duties, can have an impact
on the prevention of
all forms of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other
expressions of intolerance

• Regular training and opinion-making activities in the area of
prevention of discrimination in relation to migrants among professional
groups
and general public

• Intensifying the fight against extremism by preparing legislative
proposals and applying legislation, improving the effectiveness
of identifying,
clarifying, taking evidence of and punishing criminal acts motivated by racial
or other intolerance, and through
regular training and opinion-making activities
in the area of extremism prevention

• Intensifying monitoring, regular training and opinion-making
activities in the area of anti-Semitism prevention

• Carrying out activities aimed at addressing the needs of
disadvantaged groups of the population

• Supporting cultural and social sciences activities on compliance with
human rights and the prevention of all forms of discrimination,
racism,
xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and other expressions of intolerance

• Work of the inter–ministerial group for implementing the Action
Plan for the Prevention of All Forms of Discrimination,
Racism, Xenophobia,
Anti-Semitism and Other Expressions of Intolerance in the period from 2006 to
2008

351. The action plan proved to be a very adequate instrument for ensuring
cooperation between non-governmental organizations and State
authorities in
their common goal of preventing discrimination, xenophobia, racism,
anti-Semitism and other expressions of intolerance,
pursued through joint
efforts of all components of civil society.

352. The Section for Human Rights and Minorities of the Slovak Government
Office is responsible for the implementation and coordination
of the action
plan. Funding for projects carried out by non-governmental non-profit
organizations comes from the budget chapter of
the Slovak Government Office
allocated to “Programme 06P0201 – Support Activities of the
Government Office – the
Action Plan for the Prevention of All Forms of
Discrimination, Racism, Xenophobia, Anti-Semitism and Other Expressions of
Intolerance”.
(The 2007 allocation amounted to SKK 4,500 thousand; the
allocation earmarked for 2008 amounts to SKK 9,500 thousand).

The Committee recommends that the State party take into account its
obligations under the Covenant in the formulation of its social
welfare,
housing, health and education policies.

353. See paragraphs 137 to 307 above.

The Committee recommends to the State party that human rights, including
economic, social and cultural rights, be reflected in its
official development
assistance policy (ODA).

354. See paragraphs 21 to 30 above.

The Committee urges the State party to take concrete measures, including
the adoption of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law,
in accordance with
article 2, paragraph 2 of the Covenant, to combat and eliminate discrimination
against minority groups, in particular
against Roma people.

355. See paragraphs 5 to 20 above.

The Committee requests the State party to provide, in its next periodic
report, detailed information on any government policies, programmes
and measures
adopted to contribute to the effective implementation of the legislation on
equality between men and women, including
the representation of women at the
various levels of Government and public administration.

356. Important documents in the area of gender equality adopted in the
previous period were the National Action Plan for Women in
the Slovak Republic
and the Policy Document on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. Both documents
included measures aimed at enforcing
gender equality in practice. The National
Strategy on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women and in
Families and
the National Strategy on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence
against Women for the period 2005–2008 are the relevant
documents targeted
to violence against women. The Measures for Reconciliation of Work and Family
Life is a document with relevance
for employment issues.

357. The “Strengthening of Administrative Capacity in the Field of
Gender Mainstreaming in the Slovak Republic” PHARE
project was an
important effort with effective outcomes in the practical implementation of
gender equality through the gender mainstreaming
strategy. Within this project,
civil and public servants at various levels were trained in introducing the
gender aspect into governance.

358. Several strategies such as quotas, mentoring and couching, networking,
reconciliation of work and family life can be used to
change the image of
dominance and hierarchy, to eliminate barriers in society that deny women access
to the top levels of governance
in policy and management in economy. Gender
correct role models, working place culture, change of work culture and company
organization
may help to change preference for men in leading positions. The
anti-discrimination law does not allow introduction of quotas and
the adoption
of other special temporary measures to achieve de facto equality of women and
men. Current legislation does not include
the obligation of proportional
representation of men and women in nominating candidates for election
tickets.

359. Most activities for increasing the number of women in decision-making
positions were implemented through projects conducted in
cooperation of the
political party in power and NGOs. Within the MATRA project, the 2001–2004
“Empowering Women for Functions
in Public and Political Life in the Slovak
Republic”, platforms to create alliances of political parties for
supporting the
idea of defining own internal rules for increasing the number of
women on the tickets of political parties were formed mainly before
the 2002
elections. Courses and training for women interested in working in political
parties were also held.

360. In the context of equality between men and women, it is necessary to
mention that under the “Employment and Social Inclusion”
operational
programme, measures were adopted to support creation of equal opportunities in
access to the labour market, integration
of disadvantaged groups and
facilitation of reconciliation of work and family life.

Table 26

The 2004 European Parliament elections

Total

Women

% of women

Number of member candidates

187

47

25.13

Number of elected members

14

5

35.71

Table 27

2005 elections to higher territorial units

Total

Women

% of women

Number of deputy candidates

2 833

526

18.57

Number of elected deputies

355

57

16.06

Number of chairmen candidates

64

7

10.94

Number of elected deputies

8

0

0.00

Table 28

2006 elections to the bodies of municipal self-governments

Total

Women

% of women

Number of lord mayor/mayor candidates

8 358

1 884

22.54

Number of elected lord mayors/mayors

2 905

597

20.55

Table 29

2006 Elections to the National Council of the Slovak Republic

Total

Women

% of women

Number of member candidates

2 352

535

22.75

Number of elected members

150

24

16.00

The Committee calls upon the State party to take effective measures,
including increasing the resources allocated to reducing the
unemployment rate,
in particular among women, Roma people and other disadvantaged and marginalized
groups, especially in rural areas.

361. Long-term unemployment, in particular the employment of disadvantaged
and marginalized groups of population is a continuing problem
in the labour
market of the Slovak Republic. Existing measures of the new active labour market
policy targeted and applied to these
groups proved to be an effective tool in
integration and employment support. Support to social inclusion of multiple
disadvantaged
job seekers who are most remote from the labour market is aimed at
their inclusion through the labour market and by educating and
training for the
labour market. By implementing activities and measures, the Slovak Republic will
continue to promote integrating
rather than segregating measures and enforce a
consistent antidiscrimination policy.

362. The European Union considers the quality of jobs the best tool in
fighting poverty and social exclusion. Work offers the possibility
of developing
human potential and the capacity of social inclusion. The European Union member
States increasingly apply “active
inclusion” as means for achieving
social and labour market inclusion. In addition to standard active labour market
policy,
specific assistance tailored to the particular needs and subsequent
support to access to standard employment services are needed
in the Slovak
Republic.

363. The Slovak Republic will continue to give support to stronger targeting
of the European Social Fund means to demand oriented
projects of pilot
verification and implementation of active labour market policy for multiple
disadvantaged and marginalized groups
of population, implement, and enlarge
national projects of programmes that have proved their effect. These measures
will be compliant
with the employment policy guidelines in the member States of
the European Union.[67]

364. Enlargement of existing support programmes to employability improvement
specifically targeted to labour market integration of
disadvantaged job seekers
will continue.[68] The national
project pursuing the creation of a comprehensive programme of support to
independence and labour market inclusion of
young adults will be launched in
selected regions of Slovakia in September 2008.

365. The main challenges in the Slovak labour market characterised mainly by
low employment rate, high unemployment rate, highly structured
unemployment
manifested in the mismatch between supply and demand in the labour market will
be addressed through the “Employment
and Social Inclusion in the
2007–2013 Programming Period” operational programme. The reasons
behind this mismatch are
the disproportion between workforce qualifications and
the requirements of employers as well as long-term unemployment that contributes
to the deepening of regional disparities in the Slovak Republic. Therefore, it
was necessary to adopt appropriate measures for achieving
a balanced situation
in the labour market.

366. The key task has been and continues to be the support to equal
opportunities in access to the labour market and support to the
integration of
disadvantaged groups of population at risk of labour market exclusion with a
particular attention being paid to marginalized
Roma communities. Activities
aiming at social inclusion oriented on employment and employability of groups at
risk of social exclusion
and on growth of job opportunities for persons
belonging to these groups will continue. One of the tools for implementing
activities
addressing social inclusion today is the Social Development Fund
through which social inclusion measures in underdeveloped regions
of Slovakia
are supported.

367. Creating systems for labour market change forecasting is an inseparable
part of these measures. Social enterprise is a new tool
of active labour market
policy.[69] In March 2008, the
Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family published the call for the
“Social Enterprise Formation and
Networking” pilot project. In
compliance with the global objective of the Employment and Social Inclusion
operational programme
and the European Employment Strategy, verification of a
new tool for addressing unemployment with a particular emphasis on disadvantaged
job seekers is proposed. The intention of the project is to create favourable
conditions for social enterprises development. Through
their economic activity,
these enterprises will also accomplish a social goal, i.e. creating job
opportunities for disadvantaged
persons in the labour market and, thus, to
contribute to their new social inclusion. Their social benefit will also include
support
to municipalities by providing services to local communities and
regional development programmes implementation. The objective of
social
enterprises networking is exchange of information and experience, cooperation in
addressing employment issues with a view
to mainly disadvantaged persons in the
labour market, cooperation in the implementation of activities which are needed
in municipalities
and which are of benefit for the development of the
region.

368. In the context of employment and access to the labour market, the
situation of immigrants and ethnic minorities requires special
attention. As
they belong to the disadvantaged job seekers, they need more support in their
integration and improvement of employability
conditions. In the framework of
integration strategy, consistent inclusion of migrants into all general support
schemes in health
care, housing policy, employment and other areas of social
life, the migration office promotes a full inclusion strategy.

The Committee urges the State party to ensure that the minimum wage
enables all workers to secure a decent standard of living for
themselves and
their families.

369. Adjustments of the minimum monthly wage for the next calendar year are
negotiated by the representatives of employers and employees.
When negotiating
an increase of the minimum wage, social partners should consider the overall
economic and social situation in the
last two calendar years preceding the
calendar year in question, in particular, they should consider the development
of consumer
prices, employment, average monthly wages in the economy of the
Slovak Republic and of the subsistence level.

370. The final amount of the minimum wage depends on the results of
negotiations between the representatives of social partners and
the Government
of the Slovak Republic at the highest tripartite level in the Economic and
Social Council of the Slovak Republic.
If this body fails to achieve an
agreement on the adjustment of the amount of the minimum monthly wage, the
ministry shall draft
a governmental decree which will set the amount of the
minimum monthly wage as the multiplication of the effective monthly minimum
wage
by the index of the year-on-year average monthly nominal wage increase of an
employee in the previous year.

371. The final amount of the minimum wage for the next year shall be decided
by the Government of the Slovak Republic before 20 October
of the calendar year
considering also the development of the ratio of the net minimum wage to the net
average wage in at least two
last previous calendar years, the expected forecast
of the development of indicators of the economic and social situation in the
Slovak Republic in the current year.

372. On 15 October 2008, the Government of the Slovak Republic approved a
draft governmental decree that laid down the minimum wage
of euro 295.50 per
month for 2009, which is SKK 8,900 per month, according to this mechanism. The
approved net minimum wage after
conversion into euro at the conversion exchange
rate is € 255.83 per month (SKK 7,707).

373. According to the forecasts of the Statistical Office of the Slovak
Republic, the 2008 average monthly wage of an employee in
the national economy
is expected to be SKK 22,060, which is a net amount of SKK 17,032 per month
(€ 565.36). The proportion
of net minimum wage approved for 2009 on the
expected 2008 net average wage per month is 45.25 per cent Compared with this
index
for the previous period an increase by 0.41 point was noted.

The Committee urges the State party to effectively implement measures
recently adopted to ensure equal pay for work of equal value
and to reduce the
wage gap between men and women.

374. On 1 September 2007, an amendment to the Labour
Code[70] that introduced a separate
§ under the title “Wage for equal work and work of equal value”
to the Labour Code entered
into effect.

375. According to this provision, the employer has the obligation to pay
women and men equal wage not only for equal work but also
for work of equal
value, i.e. when a woman or a man performs work of comparable difficulty, the
terms and conditions of pay of employees
must also be agreed without any gender
based discrimination. This principle applies to any performance for work as well
as to any
performance paid or to be paid in the context of employment under
other provisions of this law or under specific legislation.

376. Equal work or work of equal value means work of identical or comparable
difficulty, responsibility and complexity performed under
identical or
comparable working conditions while achieving identical or comparable
performance and results of work under an employment
contract with the same
employer. When assessing the value of work of women and men, the employer may
use other criteria that can
be objectively measured and that can be applied to
all employees regardless of their gender, in addition to these criteria.

377. According to the information system on average pay, the average wage of
women and its percentage on the average wage of men in
the 1st quarter of 2008
was:

• In the business sector, SKK 19,691 per month in absolute figures,
which was 76.1 per cent

• SKK 17,802 per month, which was 84.3 per cent on the average wage of
men, in the non-business sector

The Committee recommends that the State party revise its legislation on
the right to strike, in line with Article 8 of the Covenant
and the relevant
Conventions of the International Labour Organization.

378. Legal provisions governing the constitutional right to strike have been
amended to prevent any restrictions of the rights of
employees. Current
legislation governing collective bargaining and its ultimate tool, the strike,
in the Slovak Republic is not fully
compliant with European Union instruments.
According to the view of experts of the Council of Europe, the “right to
strike”
in the meaning of the European Social Charter is an individual
right, however, the Constitution of the Slovak Republic as well as the
collective bargaining act stipulate the right to strike as a collective right.

379. The right to strike is really used in the Slovak Republic. Strikes occur
mostly at company level when used as the ultimate tool
for addressing industrial
disputes concerning the conclusion of collective agreements under the collective
bargaining act. For instance,
strikes were announced in 2007 (Slovenská
autobusová doprava, a.s.; Poprad, HDO s.r.o.; Myjava) and in 2008
(Kromberg
& Schubert, s.r.o., Kollárovo).

380. Outside the collective bargaining act, air traffic dispatchers of the
Letové služby, š.p. Bratislava, made use
of the right to strike
under the Constitution and went on strike in 2007. Dispatchers from other Slovak
airports also joined them.

381. In addition, other forms of protest such as protest assembly,
performance of essential duties only, are used to support wage
and social
requirements and employment conditions. Considering the above information, we do
not recommend any amendment to the legal
provisions governing the right to
strike.

The Committee requests the State party to provide detailed information on
the National Programme in Poverty Combating and Social Exclusion
and on the
Social Protection National Programme. The Committee urges the State party to
fully integrate human rights, including economic,
social and cultural rights, in
its poverty-reduction strategies. In this regard, it draws the attention of the
State party to the
Committee’s Statement on Poverty, adopted by the
Committee on 4 May 2001.

382. The National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (“NAP/SI”) is
a social inclusion policy oriented strategic document.
It has been drafted
according to the methodological guidelines of the European Commission and the
principles of open method of coordination.
The document describes priority
objectives and the measures for achieving them that built on the previous NAP/SI
and that continue
to be considered the key issues by the Slovak Republic in
achieving the goals of preventing and eliminating poverty and social exclusion.
It covers the area of social inclusion and defines priority objectives for the
relevant period reflecting the long-term vision in
this field.

383. Based on the analyses of experience from and development in the previous
NAP/SI periods, the measures will be targeted to disadvantaged
groups of
population most at risk of poverty and exclusion – i.e., in particular
children, juvenile, young adults, families
with children, the unemployed (mainly
the long term unemployed), disabled persons, marginalized Roma communities,
homeless persons,
persons released from prison, and drug and other addicts.

384. The 2008–2010 NAP/SI has identical priority goals to the
2006–2008 NAP/SI while enlarging and adjusting only specific
indicators.
Out of the four NAP/SI goals, three address social inclusion and poverty. The
priority goals have been set as follows:

• Reducing child poverty and addressing inter-generational reproduction
of poverty with preventive measures and support to families
with children

• Increasing inclusion of and combating discrimination against
vulnerable groups of population by supporting availability of
public services,
developing local solutions and increasing participation of excluded groups in
the life of society

• Improving access to labour market and increasing employment and
employability of disadvantaged job seekers and groups of population
at risk of
exclusion

• Enhancing management, implementation and monitoring of political
measures at the national, regional and local levels

385. Tools were defined and partial quantifiable targets and indicators were
set within the individual goals. The tools include structural
reforms
implemented in the Slovak Republic and the use of complex multi-tool approaches.
Structural reforms have affected the whole
area of social inclusion and social
protection policies. They have required and will continue to need assessment of
their impacts
as well as of the effectiveness of proposed measures with a view
to strengthening those areas of development, which need it. It can
be concluded
that the most effective measures are those that are invested into the
development of human resources and job
creation.[71] Complex, multi-tool
approaches combine the efforts of several policies. Cross-cutting issues and key
areas include the labour market,
social assistance and protection, education,
housing, public services and equal opportunities. In this area, they cover
mainly direct
transfers (assistance in material need, State social benefits) and
measures aimed at reducing the expenditures of individuals and
households
(material assistance, school subsidies for children, provision of services) and
measures aimed at supporting active inclusion
such as access to education,
employment and participation in social life.

386. The need of including long-term disadvantaged job seekers in the labour
market called for the introduction of a new tool supporting
active labour market
policy – the support to disadvantaged job seekers
inclusion.[72] The objective is to
introduce a system of approaches, procedures and active measures conducive for
the successful inclusion of long
term disadvantaged job seekers in the labour
market by assisting them with job seeking, supporting them in their vocational
training,
supporting their start of employment and supporting them in
maintaining the job.

The Committee calls upon the State party to enforce its legislation on
domestic violence and to take appropriate preventive measures
in order to give
the required assistance to victims of domestic violence.

387. In 2004, the Government of the Slovak Republic started to address
violence against women and domestic violence by adopting the
National Strategy
on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women and in
Families.[73] With a view to
promoting effective implementation of the national strategy, the Government
approved the 2005–2008 National
Strategy on the Prevention and Elimination
of Violence against Women.[74] The
fundamental goal of the national action plan is to implement adequate and
effective procedures for preventing and eliminating
violence against women.

388. The 2005–2008 National Strategy on the Prevention and Elimination
of Violence against Women emphasised interpreting violence
against women as a
gender-related problem and included specific measures and proposed solutions
with different deadlines. It included
mainly the implementation of basic steps
in prevention, education, research and building an institutional framework of
coordinated
assistance to women who had been victims of violence including the
very important area of improving the legislation applicable to
this matter.

389. The Progress Report on the 2005–2008 National Strategy on the
Prevention and Elimination of Violence against Women has
just been finished. A
new 2009–2013 national action plan will be drafted and it should be
submitted to the Government for approval
in December 2008. This action plan will
pursue continuing work in those areas where foundations for helping women,
victims of violence,
have already been developed. It is also necessary to
formulate new tasks that could not be included in the first 2005–2008
action plan.

390. Proposed framework measures will focus on developing a national
institutional framework of coordinated assistance, amending legislation,
implementing activities in the area of assistance to victims of
violence,[75] prevention, education
and research. Other measures will address work with offenders. Main emphasis
will be on ensuring funding for
the implementation of individual activities.

391. As regards the legislation in the area of violence against women,
amendments to the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code,
the infraction
act, the Civil Procedure Code, the Civil Code, the act on compensation to
victims of violent crimes, and the social
assistance act that were adopted in
Slovakia in the 1999–2002 period have the potential to significantly
contribute to improving
the effectiveness of the process of eliminating violence
against women. A review of the effects of these amendments that has already
started and seems to suggest that the situation in addressing domestic violence
issues has improved.

392. The most substantial changes have taken place in what is referred to
more broadly as “domestic violence”. The Criminal
Code extended the
definition of the terms “a significant other” and “a person in
one’s care”, thus
broadening the applicability of the provisions
relative to acts constituting the criminal offence of ill-treatment of a
significant
other or of a person in one’s care to a wider category of
entities, introduced the so-called protective treatment that the
court may
impose on the offender who committed a violent offence against a significant
other or a person in his or her care and when
the offender can be expected to
continue such violent actions.

393. The amendments to the original Criminal Code introduced restraining
orders barring from coming to the victim within a radius
of 5 metres and the
prohibition from staying close to the dwelling of the victim. Under the amended
Criminal Procedure Code, criminal
prosecution of the offender can be initiated
even without the consent of the victim. Newly adopted provisions stipulate that
no consent
of the victim is required in criminal offences that are
characteristic of domestic violence (such as ill-treatment of a significant
other or of a person in one’s care, rape, sexual violence, etc.).
Moreover, they make it possible to grant a new consent in
case the consent was
denied or withdrawn, where such denial or withdrawal were not made by free
expression of will. A new criminal
offence of “sexual violence” was
introduced in 2001. The perpetrator of this type of criminal offence may be a
man and
also a woman.

394. In the reported period, several amendments were adopted to the social
assistance act,[76] which is the
basis for building a network of specialized facilities for women affected by
violence, offering them specialized social
help and social assistance, social
and psychological counselling, access to legal counselling and to other forms of
specialized counselling.
The act assigns responsibility for administering and
financing the facilities that assist women-victims of violence to self-governing
regions. Specific forms of social assistance and the breakdown of funds
allocated to individual facilities for the above purposes
were outlined in the
assessment report on the National Action Plan on the Prevention and Elimination
of Violence against Women submitted
to the Government in June 2008.

395. The most important information and awareness-raising effort with the aim
of enhancing the awareness of the population of gender-related
violence
involving experts on these issues was a national campaign on “Let’s
stop domestic violence against women”
responding to the appeals and
implemented along the lines of the all-European campaign of the Council of
Europe.

396. The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family initiated and
coordinated this campaign while also cooperating with the Information
Office of
the Council of Europe in view of its European dimension, representatives of
several churches in Slovakia, NGOs associated
in the initiative called Every
Fifth Woman that attracted media attention by organising first media campaigns
intended to lift the
taboo on domestic violence in Slovakia. Other sectors, for
instance education, health care, the interior, joined the activities of
the
campaign and cooperated in certain selected activities of the campaign.
Cooperation with media was important.

397. The campaign was launched with a press conference attended by the
minister of labour, social affairs and family and the representatives
of the
Parliamentary Assembly Committee of the Council of Europe for the Equality
between Women and Men on 22 November 2007. The
event included a moderated
discussion on “Let’s Engage Men in the Fight against Domestic
Violence”. The exhibition
called “Silenced Witnesses”
displayed in the building of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family
and the Ministry
of Health, and later, in several other health care facilities,
was a part of this campaign. Further, the www.zastavmenasilie.sk website was
created, competition of draft national posters of the campaign was organized
(two of these works were exhibited at the
national posters exhibition of all
Council of Europe member states in the foyer of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe
in Strasbourg). The campaign will continue with
distributing thematic leaflets and educational materials for selected medical
professions.

398. Interested sectors and institutions were given posters; Council of
Europe posters with an appeal “We Can’t Afford
to Not Hear the Call
for Help” were presented on billboards and city lights proportionally in
all regions of Slovakia. In the
framework of the campaign, radio and TV spots
and movie by director Nina Kusturica called Sign of Escape were broadcast.
Several
media presented programmes on violence against women where experts
discussed the issue and shared relevant information.

399. During the campaign, experts from NGOs prepared information leaflets and
brochures for various target groups and cooperating
professions such as the
leaflet and brochure “Act against Violence against Women”,
publication “Act against Violence
against Women and Children”,
comics “Game Over” explaining the children violence, brochure for
politicians and
political parties and a brochure on political aspects of
violence. The X Human Rights Olympiad held in 2008 included prevention of
and
zero tolerance for domestic violence and violence against women as a separate
theme.

400. According to the Criminal Code (para. 208), ill-treatment of a
significant other or of a person in one’s care is considered
a criminal
offence. This provision grants protection not only to minors but also to all
significant others who, for any reason, depend
on care provided by other persons
(old age, disability, disease, etc.). A significant other means relatives in
direct descent, adoptive
parents, adoptees, siblings and spouses; other persons
in family or other similar relations are considered significant others only
if
they would perceive the harm suffered by one of them as their own harm.

401. Ill-treatment in the meaning of the Criminal Code means inflicting
physical or mental suffering by repeated beating, kicking,
hitting, causing
wounds and burns of various kinds, humiliation, contempt, stalking, threatening,
causing fear or stress, enforced
isolation, emotional blackmail and other
conduct that puts at risk physical or mental health of the person and restricts
person’s
safety, unfounded denial of food, deprivation of rest or sleep
and denial of necessary personal care, clothes, hygiene, health care,
housing,
raising and education, forcing to beg and/or repeated performance of activities
requiring disproportional physical or mental
effort considering the age or
health or capable of causing damage to health, exposure to the effect of
substances that could damage
person’s health and unjustified restriction
on access to property the person is authorized to use.

402. The Criminal Code stipulates a sentence of imprisonment between three to
eight years for this crime. An offender, who committed
this crime out of special
motive, in an aggravated manner or when sentenced for such crime and discharged
from the sentence of imprisonment
for such crime in the previous 24 months or
caused severe bodily harm or death, shall be punished by a stricter sentence. An
offender
shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of fifteen to twenty five
years or a life imprisonment when causing several persons serious
bodily harm or
death while committing such crime.

403. The Criminal Code also establishes as criminal offences other forms of
conduct that violate the above article, depending on specific
circumstances of
the case. This includes, for instance, injury to health, deprivation of personal
liberty, restriction of personal
liberty, extortion, racketeering, duress and
others.

Table 30

Number of persons convicted of selected crimes: OCC – old Criminal
Code

The Committee urges the State party to adopt effective measures, including
through regional cooperation, to combat trafficking in
women and to adopt
preventive programmes to combat the sexual exploitation of women, adolescents
and children.

404. Victims of trafficking in human beings are mostly women aged 18 to 25
mainly from regions of Slovakia hit by high unemployment.
The victims are not
only single women and single mothers but also married women with several
children who come usually from socially
disadvantaged families.

405. Abroad, the victims seek help from embassies or the local police
contacts embassies with a request for cooperation when apprehending
a woman, who
is a Slovak national. The International Organization for Migration (IOM)
participates in the return of these persons
in cooperation with the embassies
under the Return and Reintegration Programme for Trafficked Persons.

406. Victims mostly seek help only when they get into trouble. In many cases,
it is difficult to determine whether it is voluntary
or forced prostitution
because the women do not want to report true information and the reasons for
seeking help. Partially, it is
because they fear potential consequences from
organizers of the trafficking or because they want to continue their activity
after
the problem is solved. After returning home, only a negligible percentage
of victims informed the police that they were victims of
trafficking in human
beings. When they really need help, they prefer to contact an NGO. They usually
refuse to cooperate with the
police either because of fear of reprisal from
dealers, though, the main reason, however, is that they do not want their
community
to know that they were engaged in prostitution.

407. Prevention projects aimed at preventing crime, focused on the Schengen
context and prevention of trafficking in human beings,
were organized under the
“Information campaign on impacts of Schengen on the citizens of the Slovak
Republic and the risks
of trafficking in human beings”. The objective of
the campaign was to inform the representatives of State administration,
self-governments,
primary and secondary school teachers and students, NGO
representatives, municipal police, churches and community centres and to
train
coordinators at primary and secondary schools on this issue.

408. The information campaign was organized by the Council of the Slovak
Republic for Crime and Other Anti-Social Behaviour Prevention
in cooperation
with the coordinators of crime and other anti-social behaviour prevention of the
Regional Office at Košice and
the Regional Office at Prešov, the
International Office for Migration (IOM), the Office of Border and Alien Police
of the Ministry
for the Interior of the Slovak Republic and the Department of
Criminal Law of the School of Law of Pavol Jozef Šafárik
University
at Košice. In the information campaign, 2,030 persons from target groups
and 24 representatives of print and electronic
media, thus, indirectly also the
public of the whole of Slovakia, were addressed.

409. Statistical data on the crime of trafficking in human beings provided by
the police do not reflect the actual picture because
of the high latency of this
kind of crime. In view of the situation, the Council of the Government of the
Slovak Republic for Crime
Prevention has promoted the need to initiate research
of latent crime through victim surveys that would give a “more
realistic”
picture of the situation represented only through criminal
statistics until now. On the initiative of the Council of the Slovak Republic
for Crime and Anti-Social Conduct Prevention, the department for criminology and
crime prevention was established at the Ministry
of the Interior. This
department, in cooperation with the Centre of Science of Bratislava School of
Law, the Institute for Public
Opinion Research at the Statistical Office of the
Slovak Republic started to study the incidence of latent crime in Slovakia. This
step makes the Slovak Republic one of the countries where the development of
research is measured in particular by orientation on
latent crime. Final
research results will be published as a book that will be used in training of
crime prevention staff at all levels
and also the public will be informed of the
findings.

410. Under the “Reaction of Criminal Justice to Trafficking in Human
Beings in the Slovak Republic” joint project of the
Ministry for the
Interior and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, an independent
research institute, the Slovak Governance
Institute has carried out activities
to ensure availability of basic data on illegal trafficking in human beings in
the Slovak Republic,
collection of existing data on captured cases of
trafficking including data on investigation, prosecution, suspects and convicts.
In this context, another activity is surveying the situation in the flows of
illegal trafficking in human beings from and through
the Slovak Republic
including the profiles of victims, perpetrators and their manner of operation.

411. In 2003–2007, the “Trafficking in Human Beings”
project was carried out in the framework of Dutch-Slovak cooperation
under the
Memorandum of Understanding between the Slovak Republic and the Kingdom of the
Netherlands. The project aimed at improving
mainly the professionalism of the
staff taking part in clarifying the crimes of trafficking in human beings and
other Police Corps
officers who come into contact with the victims of this crime
and at offering them a possibility of learning from practical experience
of
their Dutch colleagues.

412. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) implements the
“Return and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons”
project under the
EQUAL Community Initiative. The objective of the project is to provide practical
assistance in the return and reintegration
of trafficked persons coming from
Slovakia who are in a target country and who want to return voluntarily to
Slovakia or who are
already in Slovakia and who either personally or via a third
person or organization, express interest in reintegration assistance.
The
implementation of the programme was launched in August 2006. From August 2006
until the end of 2007, twenty persons, who were
granted various types of
assistance in cooperation with experts from NGOs, were registered in it. In
addition, the “Programme
for the Return and Reintegration of Trafficked
Persons” provides consultations, counselling and crisis assistance to
potential
clients or external reporting organizations and persons.

413. The “Trafficking in Human Beings Prevention for Secondary School
Teachers and Students” project was implemented by
the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) through the Accenture Foundation and the Pontis
foundation in January and February
2007. The objective of the project was to
raise awareness among young people — 14–19 years old students
— on the
threat of trafficking in human beings and the possibilities of
its prevention through discussion groups at secondary boarding schools.
The
project also tested a new form of prevention within a group of young people
through the so called peer activists trained in disseminating
prevention
information by working with peer groups in the dormitories, at schools, etc. The
target group are 14–19 years old
secondary school students. Peer
activities attracted 449 participants, 17 peer activists and three supervisors
engaged in the discussion
groups activity.

414. In the prevention of trafficking in human beings, sexual exploitation
and support to victims, prevention activities of the Police
Corps were also
targeted to secondary school youth. Under the “Crisis Intervention and
Social Inclusion of Victims of Trafficking
in Human Beings in Cooperation with
the Police Corps Officers, State Administration and Self-Governments”
project, Police Corps
officers visited secondary schools and showed and lectured
on the Lilja 4ever film.

415. The counselling information centres formed at regional directorates of
the Police Corps, which provide counselling services,
and assistance to
citizens, have also information materials and leaflets on assistance to victims
of trafficking in human beings
in different languages. During lectures at
schools, leaflets issued by the department for security strategy and counselling
activities
of the Office of the Minister for the Interior of the Slovak Republic
in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration
(IOM) and the
Dotyk – Beckov, Slovak crisis centre, were distributed.

The Committee calls upon the State party to adopt effective measures,
including public awareness campaigns, to reduce tobacco smoking
and alcohol
consumption.

Smoking

416. The Slovak Republic has implemented mass media campaigns to reduce the
number of smokers at national level. Tobacco smoking related
death toll is
estimated at 11,000 in Slovakia today. If no measures for reducing tobacco
products consumption are adopted in near
future, mortality may grow
significantly. From this point of view, the Stop and Win media campaign is one
of effective tools for
quitting smoking.

417. This competition has been regularly organized on a biennial basis in
Slovakia since 1996. Then, 715 participants took part in
the competition. Since
then, their number has constantly grown. In 1998, they were 844 and 2000, as
many as 1,656. This year, 370
participants applied for the competition. The
objective pursued with the Stop and Win competition is to motivate smokers to
change
their lifestyle and to promote non-smoking among those who fail in their
attempts to quit consuming tobacco products.

418. In addition to having better health, the participants are also
encouraged to take part in the competition by the possibility
of winning
interesting and valuable prizes. An important motivation tool is also awarding
prizes to those drawn participants who
stopped smoking for a period of one
month.

419. Since 1994, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic has conducted
periodic biennial surveys of a representative sample
of population on drug and
tobacco products consumption. Since 1994, non-smokers are in majority in all
samples. Since 2000, the share
on non-smokers is also on increase among youth.
Since 1998, the share of non-smokers among the Bratislava youth is unchanged
–
53 per cent. The number of respondents who report daily smoking
increases with age. On the other hand, occasional smokers have the
highest
proportion among the youngest ones.

420. In 2006, the most numerous group of adults among three surveyed samples
are non-smokers, when the number of non-smokers hit the
60 per cent limit the
first time. The drop in daily smokers to its historic minimum since 1994 is
closely linked with this finding.
The share of irregular smokers remains
constant compared with other years.

421. In Slovakia, the situation in incidence of smokers among 15–29
years old youth is stabilised. In contrast with adults,
no increase in the
non-smokers was observed in the reported 1994–2006 period. It is estimated
that 43 per cent of men and 16
per cent of women older that 18 years smoke in
Slovakia.

Table 34The share of
smokers and non-smokers in adults

Shares of smokers (daily and occasional) and non-smokers, sample SR

(

data in %)

25

13

62

27

28

29

32

27

28

17

14

14

14

13

13

56

58

57

54

60

59

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

Daily

Occasionally

Not at all

Table 35

The share of smokers and non-smokers in youth

Shares of smokers (daily and occasional) and non-smokers, youth

sample SR

(data in %)

26

25

22

56

54

23

26

23

29

24

23

19

21

23

22

22

54

55

48

52

54

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

Daily

Occasionally

Not at all

422. ESPAD (European School Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs), GYTS (Global
Youth Tobacco Survey) and regular surveys conducted
by the Institute of
Information and Prognoses of Education monitor the experience with tobacco
products consumption in 16-year old
children in Slovakia. One of the surveyed
features is smoking during the last 30 days (The ESPAD Report, 2007).

Table 36

Smoking in 16-year old children during the last 30 days in the
1995–2007 period

1995

1999

2003

2007

Boys

34%

40%

39%

51%

Girls

20%

34%

36%

43%

423. These data show that according to ESPAD, the situation in Slovakia
deteriorates. An alarming 23 per cent increase of girls who
took a cigarette in
the last 30 days (1995–2007) was registered. The situation concerning
boys, where a 17 per cent increase
(1995–2007) is observed, is not better.

424. The GYTS survey organized by the US National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion also studied the occurrence
of tobacco products
smoking and consumption among 13 to 15 years old youth in Slovakia. Its results
revealed these most important
data (GYTS, Report, 2007):

• 30.7 per cent usually smoke in public areas (parks, shopping malls,
streets and the like)

• 50.8 per cent purchase cigarettes in shops

• 83.3 per cent of those who purchased cigarettes in a shop were not
refused service because of their young age

Passive smoking:

• 46.3 per cent live in households where people smoke in their
presence

• 69.3 per cent are exposed to passive smoking outside their
household

• 79.8 per cent believe that smoking should be forbidden in public
areas

• 75.6 per cent believe that passive smoking is harmful to them

• 50.9 per cent have at least one parent who is a smoker

• 24.1 per cent have most or all friends who are smokers

Quitting smoking – smokers:

• 65.1 per cent want to quit smoking

• 78.0 per cent tried to quit smoking last year

• 66.4 per cent accepted help in their effort to quit smoking

• 16.8 per cent think of cigarette as the first thing when they wake up
in the morning

Incidence of passive smoking

425. In Slovakia and worldwide, several surveys targeted to passive smoking
incidence were conducted. In Slovakia, the last survey
on passive smoking
exposure was carried out among the inhabitants of Bratislava (Prevalencia
vystavovania, 2006). The survey concluded
that the most frequent place where
adult non-smokers are exposed to passive smoking was a bar or a café
followed by a restaurant,
shopping malls ranked third.

Table 37

Incidence of passive smoking

discotheques/

music events

Passive smoking incidence

17,4

46,5

35

29

19,5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

bar/café

restaurant

shopping mall

culture and sports

facilities

426. From the passive smoking perspective, the worst situation in the
European Union, according to the survey of the European Statistical
Office, is
in Malta where as many as 64 per cent of adult population over 18 years of age
are often exposed to passive smoking. Cyprus,
Italy and Slovakia with a level of
exposure of 54 per cent of adult population follow (Attitudes of Europeans,
2006).

The National Action Plan for Alcohol Problem

427. The Slovak Republic adopted its Plan For Action on Alcohol Problems in
2006. The main objective is to reduce health, family and
broader negative social
problems linked with alcohol consumption. Reducing alcohol consumption mainly
among youth is considered one
of the most important means for achieving these
goals. In spring 2008, a broad, practically society-wide discussion together
with
extensive media coverage of the proposed new act on children and youth
protection against the consumption of alcoholic beverages
took place.

428. Young people are the group of population group most at risk of starting
and developing alcohol addiction. The group, which influences
attitudes and
behaviour of young people, is the family and peers. Considering this aspect,
regional public health offices intervene
with parents, relatives, teachers, drug
addiction prevention coordinators, school psychologists. Educational approaches
and counselling
are based on scientific knowledge and, thematically, they focus
on prevention and reduction of problems linked with alcohol and other
habit
forming substances consumption and abstinence support in children.

429. The main principles of activities of the Public Health Authority of the
Slovak Republic:

• Change of ignorant social attitude to the alcohol related problems in
Slovakia — sensitivity of politicians and the
whole society to problems
related to excessive and harmful alcohol drinking — emphasising facts on
unhealthy attitudes of the
society leading to support of harmful and excessive
alcohol consumption

• Change of social attitudes to drinking of individuals, to abstinence,
to respecting individual’s right not to drink,
to improve the image of a
non-drinking person as a positive example of behaviour and health.

• To provide information on the risks of long-term and excessive
alcohol consumption in adults through counselling (a facilitating
counselling
interview) and health education

430. The objectives of the Plan For Action on Alcohol Problems:

• To emphasize person’s responsibility for their health

• To focus on the change of negative social stereotypes with respect to
alcoholic beverages consumption in Slovakia —
as a priority, to emphasise
person’s “right” to refuse offered alcohol and not to drink
— the right to respect
for situational abstinence

• To develop health education of citizens with the aim of achieving a
change in alcoholic beverages drinking patterns by education
to sobriety and
controlled drinking

• To develop a monitoring system for indicators of alcohol consumption
in Slovakia and its negative impact on people

431. Since 1996, the shares of respondents who reported daily drinking and
drinking 2–3 times a week of 10 degree and stronger
beer has not changed
in the sample of the Slovak Republic according to the survey conducted by the
Statistical Office of the Slovak
Republic, the share of those who drink beer
occasionally has again slightly decreased (by two percentage points compared
with 2004).
Today, the share of absolute non-consumers of 10 degree and stronger
beer in the all-Slovakia sample is coming close to two fifth,
which is the
largest group ever.

Table 38

Beer drinking in adult population sample in 1996–2006 (data in
%)

Year

Daily

2–3 times a week

Only occasionally

Not drinking at all

1996

9

16

41

34

1998

7

16

41

36

2000

8

17

43

32

2002

7

14

45

34

2004

8

15

42

35

2006

8

15

40

37

432. In the adult population, 1 per cent of respondents admitted daily
consumption of wine according to the Statistical Office of
the Slovak Republic,
which confirms a stabilised trend with the exception of 2004; 6 per cent of
respondents drink wine 2–3
times a week. On the other hand, the share of
occasional consumers grew by five percentage points and currently, it is seven
out
of ten respondents. Since the commencement of the survey, wine non-consumers
represented approximately one quarter of the adult population
and this figure
has been almost stable since 1996.

Table 39

Wine drinking in adult population sample in 1996–2006 (Data in
%)

Year

Daily

2–3 times a week

Only occasionally

Not drinking at all

1996

1

8

67

24

1998

1

6

70

23

2000

1

7

69

23

2002

1

6

69

24

2004

2

8

64

26

2006

1

6

69

24

433. The share of liquor consumers in adult population group grew by two
percentage points compared with 2004. The survey also identified
two percentage
points more of occasional liquor consumers. The number of daily consumers and
those who drink “hard” alcohol
two – three times a week is the
same as in the last measurements. Compared with 1996, the number of persons not
drinking liquor
at all increased from 28 per cent to 33 per cent.

The Committee requests the State party to provide, in its second periodic
report, information about the mentally ill, including the
number of those
hospitalized, the facilities available to them and the legal safeguards for the
protection against abuse and neglect
of patients.

434. In the Slovak Republic, psychiatric care is provided according to
Article 17(6) of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic and the health care
act, services linked with health care.

435. A person may be admitted to an institutional health care facility
providing psychiatric care without informed consent, when such
person is a
threat to themselves and their surroundings or when at risk of serious
deterioration of their health as a consequence
of mental illness. In these
cases, the health-care provider is obliged to notify the court that has the
territorial jurisdiction
over the institutional health-care establishment of
having admitted a person for institutional treatment within 24 hours. The court
decides on the lawfulness of the reasons for admission to institutional care.
Until the court makes that decision, the only authorized
medical interventions
are those that are essential for saving the life and health of the person or for
ensuring the security of his
or her surroundings. When the reasons for admitting
a person into institutional care, which does not require informed consent,
disappear,
the provider has the obligation to release the person from
institutional care or to seek informed consent.

436. In 2006, altogether 1,600,000 out-patient psychiatric examinations were
carried out in 267 out-patient adult departments and
45 out-patient child
departments of which approximately 78,000 were examined the 1x in their life and
250,000 were examined the first
time in the surveyed year. Psychiatric
departments are established within general hospitals, psychiatric clinics and
psychiatric
sanatoria. Out-of-hospital care is provided in 17 day hospitals. No
community facilities for patients suffering from mental disorders
exist in the
Slovak Republic.

437. It is the first time in modern Slovak psychiatry that the Ministry of
Health approves optimum out-patient department prescriptions
based on the Reform
of Psychiatric Care. In practice, this means that the number of psychiatric
out-patients departments will be
increased by 85 medical doctor positions, old
age psychiatry will get 67 medical doctor positions more, child psychiatry 37
new medical
doctor positions, out-patient departments for alcoholism and other
addictions treatment will get 33 medical doctor positions more
and psychiatric
sexology will be added 18 medical doctor positions, i.e. a total increase by 240
medical doctor positions compared
with the current situation where the total is
261 medical doctor positions.

438. New out-patient positions are opened on the basis of regional
distribution of the number of examinations. It will be a multi-annual
process.
Already today, it faces significant limitations due to restricted funding
possibilities of facilities with beds available
for recruiting graduates
interested in psychiatry and for their training. The approval of increasing the
capacity of the day hospital
from current 280 places to 900 is also important.
Here, the regional principle also applies. As the out-patient, day hospital and
clinical psychological care will develop, decreasing bed capacity, in particular
in psychiatric establishments, has to be expected
in the institutional care
context.

439. Transformation of psychiatric care into community care, which takes into
account the satisfaction of social needs of our patients
in a better way than it
is currently done, cannot be implemented in a radical way and without necessary
sensitivity. It is an evolutionary
process taking into account individual needs
and possibilities of each of our patients in long-term care.

The Committee urges the State party to intensify its efforts to increase
the school attendance of Roma children, especially at the
primary level, and to
address the problem of dropouts among secondary school pupils. The Committee
also recommends that the State
party collect and develop data, disaggregated by
gender and ethnic origin, as stated in the Committee’s General Comment No.
13, for inclusion in its next periodic report.

440. Education policy has become one of the key tools in combating
inter-generational reproduction of poverty. By ensuring equal opportunities
in
access to education and the possibility of attaining quality education
regardless of child’s socio-economic environment,
integration of children
from risk and marginalized groups into standard school environment has been
ensured. This measure has been
implemented mainly by fine-tuning education
policies and by granting assistance during studies (starting with supporting
access to
pre-school education). The essential task was the adoption of the
school act in May 2008 that has become a systemic tool in this
area. This law
considers, inter alia, equal access to education and training, prohibition of
all forms of discrimination (in particular
segregation), life-long learning,
preparation for responsible life in free society in the spirit of understanding
and tolerance,
equality between men and women, friendship among nations,
national and ethnic groups and religious tolerance, integration of the
education
system of the Slovak Republic into the European educational area with a view to
own experience and tradition, ban on providing
and making available information
or misuse of information means that could disturb morals or incite national,
racial and ethnic hatred
and other forms of intolerance, to be the principles of
education and training.

441. In addition, inclusion policies have been implemented in education
through financial support programmes such as contributions
and subsidies to
supporting access to education for children and pupils from low income families
and subsidies to food, school aids
and an motivation allowance for children from
kindergartens and primary schools, subsidies to scholarship for secondary school
students
from the European Social Fund, social scholarship for university
students as well as transport allowances for primary school pupils.
The system
of subsidies has continued to be used for supporting access to education for
children from low-income families starting
already with pre-school
education.

442. Tools and integration programmes for children from excluded, endangered
and marginalized groups into standard school environment
were supported and
developed. These tools include the zero
grade,[79] transition grades,
counselling tools, out-of-school education, preparation courses, tutoring,
various types of innovative and acceleration
programmes and programmes of work
with parents carried out at schools, community centres, in field, etc.

443. In education of children with special educational needs, the legislation
made individual integration in the regular school system,
education through
social integration in special classes in regular schools, education in special
schools possible in the system of
education. Educational and psychological
counselling centres, educational and psychological prevention centres,
diagnostic centres,
therapeutic and educational sanatoria and special
educational counselling establishments (i.e. establishments of school
counselling
and specialized educational establishments) assist these children
and their legal guardians. Education received at special schools
except the
education from special schools for mentally handicapped pupils, is equal to the
education received at primary and secondary
schools.

444. The European Social Fund significantly contributed to the implementation
of the development of inclusive education. Priority
support of the
2007–2013 programming period is given to ensuring access to education
including building of educational infrastructure.
Today, emphasis is put on
consistent implementation of tools for preventing segregated education mainly of
children from marginalized
Roma communities.

445. In 2006, the decree on granting social scholarship to university
students that increased the maximum amount of scholarship for
the
2006–2007 school-year, was
adopted.[80] In 2008, the Concept of
Upbringing and Education of Roma Children and Pupils Including the Development
of Secondary and Tertiary
Education was adopted. The Strategy of Life-long
Learning and Life-long Counselling were approved by government resolution. The
objective
is to create conditions for acquiring qualifications during active
life. Developing key competences and improving chances in the
labour market are
the priority. This strategy pays particular attention to supporting gender
equality and creating conditions for
disabled persons. In its new lifelong
learning act, the Slovak Republic also envisage creating conditions for
recognition of results
of informal and non-instructional education for attaining
qualification. This would enhance social inclusion and reintegration into
the
labour market.

446. The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government for Roma Communities
runs a scholarship programme for secondary school and
university students in
cooperation with the Open Society Foundation within its grant scheme. Within
this programme, the Office of
the Plenipotentiary of the Government for Roma
Communities granted scholarships to 112 secondary school students and 25
university
students in 2007. Within its grant scheme, grants amounting to 42
millions were given to several projects, among them also to 39
projects for
improving the quality of life of socially disadvantaged groups, community
centres in 16 municipalities, education (17
projects) and drafting of project
documentation for the construction of municipal rental flats (for 19 entities).

447. Of the whole surveyed sample of Roma population, which finished
education, as much as 35 per cent were persons who have not completed
primary
school. Individuals who completed their education at the level of primary school
had approximately the same share (36,6 per
cent). Only one quarter of the
surveyed sample (24,3 per cent) continued their education after completing
primary school. Of which
almost 9 per cent failed (they interrupted their
vocational studies at secondary schools and have the status of not-completed
secondary
education) and only 15,4 per cent of surveyed Roma population attained
secondary and higher education. Out of the whole sample, less
than 4 per cent
were graduates of special
schools.[81]

448. The surveyed sample showed certain gender-related differences. Compared
to men, the group of women showed higher representation
of not-completed primary
education and primary education, women had a lower proportion in higher levels
of educations. The share
of persons completing special schools was approximately
identical in both men and women (4 per cent). In total, the structure of
education in the surveyed Roma women can be assessed as slightly lagging behind
the structure of education of men.

449. Differences that are more distinctive were identified with respect to
age. The share of not-completed primary education was the
highest in the oldest
age group over 50 years of age and it gradually dropped with decreasing age.
However, the share of not completed
primary education exceeded one quarter (25.8
per cent) in the youngest group. Compared with other age categories, higher
share of
primary (almost 41 per cent) and not completed secondary education
(11.5 per cent) was established in the youngest age group. It
is interesting to
find that completed secondary education had the highest representation in the
middle age group and not in the youngest
age group. While in the youngest age
group, individuals with secondary education had a share of 13.7 per cent, in the
middle age
generation of 30 to 49 years of age it was almost 20 per cent. In the
oldest age group, less than 10 per cent attained secondary
education. The
highest share of individuals attending a special school was in the youngest age
group – 7.5 per cent. In the
two older age groups, this difference did not
exceed 2 per cent.

450. It looks as if there were two tendencies in the education of the
surveyed Roma population: towards younger generation, the level
of education
increases, however, only till the level of “not completed secondary
school”. Completed secondary education
has the largest representation in
the middle age generation. On the other hand, the number of special school
graduates increased
in the youngest generation.

451. These tendencies are also confirmed by the average age in individual
levels of education. The average age in the category of
not completed primary
education was almost 40 years, in the group with completed primary education it
was 35 years and in the category
of not completed secondary education the
average age dropped below 31 years. In the group with completed secondary
education the
average age again came closer to 35 years.

452. Altogether 495 students of Roma nationality studied at all types of
secondary schools in the 2006/2007 school year According
to the 2007 statistical
yearbook, the number of pupils was 292 on 15 September 2007. According to this
year-book, altogether, 3,910
pupils and students of Romany nationality attended
primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher learning.

453. The comparison of data for 2006 and 2007 available in the statistical
yearbook shows that the share of pupils of Romany nationality
has declined at
the secondary school level. It has significantly dropped at lower types of
secondary schools such as secondary vocational
schools and joined secondary
schools and the number of these students increased at secondary technical
schools. The number of students
at comprehensive secondary schools –
gymnasia slightly dropped (http://web.uips.sk/statis/rocenka.html).

454. Only one quarter of the surveyed sample (24.3 per cent), which comprised
720 Roma households on the basis of the UNDP survey,
continued their education
after completing primary school. Of which almost 9 per cent failed (they
interrupted their vocational studies
at secondary schools and have the status of
not-finished secondary education) and only 15.4 per cent of surveyed Roma
population
attained secondary and higher education.

The Committee encourages the State party to provide human rights education
in schools at all levels and to raise awareness about human
rights, in
particular economic, social and cultural rights, among State officials and the
judiciary.

455. Human rights education and multiculturalism based education are
addressed in the 2005–2014 National Plan of Action for
Human Rights
Education drawn up by the Ministry of Education. Based on UN guidance on public
human rights awareness programmes (annex
to the UN Decade for Human Rights
Education (1995–2004), the National Commission for Human Rights Education
was established
at the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights beginning of
2006.

456. The core part of the national human rights education plan includes
continuing education of teachers, issuing of methodological
publications and
textbooks and a monitoring and evaluation system for the quantity and quality of
human rights education. The Ministry
of Education monitors achievement of tasks
under the national plan annually, followed by drawing up a plan of activities
for the
next year with financial coverage (amounting to some SKK 3 million). The
national plan builds on the Migration Policy Concept Detailed
Down to the Level
of the Ministry of Education.

457. Acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes important for enhancing human
dignity, informed and independent participation in the
development of a
democratic society in compliance with such values as human rights, equality,
plurality and justice are the objective
of human rights education at
schools.

458. The Committee requests the State party to disseminate the present
concluding observations widely at all levels of society and,
in particular,
among State officials and the judiciary and to inform the Committee, in its next
periodic report, of all steps taken
to implement them. It also encourages the
State party to consult with non-governmental organizations and other members of
civil society
in the preparation of the report.

459. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the Report on the
Consideration of the Initial Report by the Slovak Republic on the
Implementation
of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights together
with the concluding observations by
the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights of November 2002 on its website – www.mzv.sk.

[*] In accordance with the information
transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their reports, the
present document
was not edited before being sent to the United Nations
translation services.

[1] Council Directive of 29 June
2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective
of racial or ethnic
origin.

[3] By means of Act No. 326/2007
Coll. amending and supplementing Act No. 2004/ Coll. on equal treatment in
certain areas and on the
protection against discrimination, and on amending and
supplementing other relevant acts (the Antidiscrimination Act) in the wording of
the Finding of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic No. 539/2005
Coll. that entered into effect on
1 September 2007.

[4] Council Directive of 27
November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment
and occupation

[5] Act No. 85/2008 Coll. amending
and supplementing Act No. 365/2004 Coll. on equal treatment in certain areas and
on the protection
against discrimination, and on amending and supplementing
other relevant acts (the Antidiscrimination Act) as amended, and on amending and
supplementing Act No. 308/1993 Coll. of the National Council of the Slovak
Republic on establishing
the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights as
amended.

[6] Council Directive of 13
December 2004 implementing the principle of equal treatment between men and
women in the access to and supply
of goods and services.

[13] Established in accordance
with Act No. 103/2007 Coll. on tripartite consultations at the national level
and on amending and supplementing
other relevant acts (the Tripartite Act).

[14] Labour Code – Act No.
311/2001 Coll. as amended; Act No. 124/2006 Coll. on work safety and health and
on amending and supplementing
other relevant acts as amended; Act No. 125/2006
Coll. on labour inspection and on amending and supplementing Act No. 82/2005
Coll.
on illegal work and illegal employment and on amending and supplementing
other relevant acts as amended; Act No. 355/2007 Coll. on
the protection,
promotion and improvement of public health and on amending and supplementing
other relevant acts as amended by Act
No. 140/2008 Coll.; Government Regulation
No. 272/2004 Coll. establishing the list of work tasks and workplaces that are
prohibited
for pregnant women, mothers until the ninth month after the delivery
and breastfeeding mothers, the list of work tasks and workplaces
presenting
specific risks for pregnant women, mothers until the end of the ninth month
after the delivery and for breastfeeding women,
and which lays down certain
obligations for the employers of these women; Government Regulation No. 286/2004
Coll. establishing the
list of work tasks and workplaces that are prohibited for
juvenile workers and setting out certain obligations for employers in connection
with employing juveniles; Government Regulation No. 276/2006 Coll. on minimum
safety and health requirements for work with display
units; Government
Regulation No. 281/2006 Coll. on minimum safety and health requirements for
manual handling of loads; Government
Regulation No. 387/2006 Coll. on the
requirements for safety and health signs at work; Government Regulation No.
391/2006 Coll. on
minimum safety and health requirements for a workplace;
Government Regulation No. 392/2006 Coll. on minimum safety and health
requirements
for the use of work equipment; Government Regulation No. 393/2006
Coll. on minimum work safety and health requirements for work in
explosive
environment; Government Regulation No. 395/2006 Coll. on minimum requirements
for the provision and use of personal protective
equipment at work; Government
Regulation No. 396/2006 Coll. on minimum safety and health requirements for
construction sites; Regulation
of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and
Family No. 718/2002 Coll. on ensuring health and safety at work and safety of
technical
equipment; Regulation of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and
Family No. 500/2006 Coll. establishing a specimen record form
on work injury
reports; Regulation of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family No.
356/2007 Coll. laying down the details
of the requirement for and scope of
educational and training activities, on the education and training project, on
the keeping of
prescribed documentation and knowledge testing of graduates of
education and training.

[15] Such as Regulation No.
21/1989 Coll. on health and safety at work and safety of operations in mining
activities and in activities
using mining procedures underground, Regulation No.
29/1989 Coll. on safety and health at work and safety of operations in mining
activities and activities using mining procedures on the surface.

[16] According to the
information system on average wages administered by Trexima, spol. s r.o.

[17] Classification of
occupations used in the Slovak Republic corresponds to ISCO-88 – the
International Standard Classification
of Occupations. Major group 1 covers
legislators, senior officials and managers, and major group 2 covers
professionals.

[18] Directive 2006/54/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of
the principle of equal
opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in
matters of employment and occupation.

[19] Act No. 462/2003 Coll. on
compensation of earnings during an employee’s temporary incapacity for
work and on amendments to
certain acts, as amended.

[20] Based on Act No. 43/2004
Coll. on old-age pension savings and on amendments to certain acts as amended,
effective as of 1 January
2005.

[21] The procedure to be
followed when assigning workplaces to the 3rd and 4th
hazard category is provided in Act No. 355/2007 Z. z. on protection, support and
development of public health and on amendments to
certain acts as amended, and
also in implementing regulations related thereto. Pursuant to this Act, the
regional public health bodies
identify the workplaces falling under the
3rd and 4th category once a year. The number of employees
working in such workplaces is approximately 110,000.

[22] Act No. 600/2003 Coll. on
child benefit and amendments as amended, Act No. 280/2002 Coll. on parental
allowance as amended, Act No.
235/1998 Coll. on the child birth allowance and on
allowances for parents who have 3 or more children born at the same time or
twins
more than once in two years, amending and supplementing certain acts, as
amended, Act No. 627/2005 Coll. on allowances to support
substitute care for a
child, Act No. 201/2008 on substitute child maintenance and on amendments to Act
No. 36/2005 on family and
on amendments to certain acts, as amended by Finding
No. 615/2006 Coll. of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic.At
the same time, Act No. 300/1999 Coll. on housing allowance — the housing
allowance has become part of the system of assistance
in material need, Act No.
236/1998 Coll. on maintenance allowance — as a consequence of building
professional armed forces
of the Slovak Republic, and Act No. 265/1998 Coll. on
foster care and on allowances for foster care, which was replaced with Act
No.
627/2005 Coll., were repealed.

[23] Under Act No. 595/2003
Coll. on income tax, effective from 1 January 2004.

[24] Act No. 627/2005 Coll. on
allowances to support substitute care for a child as amended.

[26] Under Act No. 328/2002
Coll. on social security for policemen and soldiers and on amendments to certain
acts.

[27] In line with the
performance of tasks under Act No. 315/2001 Coll. on Fire and Rescue Corps,
Regulation No. 14/2003 of the Minister
of the Interior of the Slovak Republic on
health care and medical opinions in Fire and Rescue Corps, as amended by
Regulation No.
14/2004 of the Minister of the Interior of the Slovak Republic
and Instruction No. 63/2003 of the President concerning the procedure
to be
followed in performing a regular medical examination of the Rescue and Fire
Corps members.

[29] Which reads: “The
Government of the Slovak Republic is aware of the fact that to protect the
lives, health and property of
the people, it is necessary to prepare the ground
for an essential improvement of the social security and salaries of the Fire and
Rescue Corps members to ensure that they are on a par with other security forces
of the state.”

[30] Act No. 305/2005 Coll. on
social and legal protection and social guardianship.

[35] The latest census was
conducted in Slovakia in 2001 pursuant to Act No. 165/1998 Coll. on the Census
of the Population, Houses and
Flats.

[36] Approved by Government
Resolution No. 63/2005 of 19 January 2005.

[37] Since 2002, the Slovak
Institute of Plant Production in Piešťany and its branches have bred
14 new cultivars of field crops
and seven new cultivars of grapevine, and put
them on the List of Registered Cultivars of the Slovak Republic.

[38] The Gene Bank of the Slovak
Republic functions at the Slovak Institute of Plant Production in
Piešťany; the 18th EUCARPIA
international conference entitled
“Plant Genetic Resources and their Exploitation in the Plant Breeding for
Food and Agriculture”
was held in Slovakia in 2007.

[39] Act No. 578/2004 Coll. on
health-care providers, health professionals, and professional organizations in
health care and on amendment
to certain acts.

[47] Decree of the Ministry of
Education No. 314/2008 Coll. on secondary schools and on the list of study
programmes which require testing
for special capacities, skills or faculties,
lays down details on the types of secondary specialized schools, conservatories,
organization
of their educational process, scope, conditions, duration and
course of their programmes, and lays down a system of study programmes
for
secondary specialized schools, conservatories and grammar schools;

Decree of the Ministry of Education No. 318/2008 Coll. on the termination
of secondary schools studies;

Decree of the Ministry of Education No. 319/2008 Coll. on the recognition
of an alternative to school leaving exam in a foreign
language.

[48] Act No. 363/2007 Coll.
amending Act No. 131/2002 Coll. on Universities and on amendments to certain
acts, as amended, and on amendments
to certain acts.

[49] Decree No. 326/1990 Coll.
on the granting of social scholarships to university students.

[50] Decree No. 453/2005 Coll.
on the scope and other details concerning the granting of incentive
scholarship.

[51] A related regulation is
instruction by the Ministry of Education No. 1/2006-R which specifies a
procedure to be taken by schools
when determining average school marks of
elementary and special school pupils for the purposes of granting an incentive
contribution
subsidy for a child to prevent its social exclusion.

[52] University Library in
Bratislava; State Scientific Libraries in Banská Bystrica, Prešov a
Košice.

[61] Act No. 68/2008 Coll. on
Payments for Public Services provided by the Slovak Television and the Slovak
Radio as amended, approved
by the National Council of the Slovak Republic on 15
February 2008.

[64] Berne Convention for the
Protection of Literary and Artistic Works; International Convention for the
Protection of Performers, Producers
of Phonograms and Broadcasting
Organizations; Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS), etc.

[65] Directive of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of
intellectual property rights.

[66] The original harmonization
framework for the compliance of the Copyright Act with the Community acquis
consisted of:

1. Council Directive 91/250/EEC of 14 May 1991 on the legal protection of
computer programs.

2. Council Directive 92/100/EEC of 19 November 1992 on rental right and
lending right and on certain rights related to copyright
in the field of
intellectual property.

Council Directive 93/83/EEC of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of
certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright
applicable to
satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission.

Council Directive 93/98/EEC of 29 October 1993 harmonizing the term of
protection of copyright and certain related rights as amended
by Directive
2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March
1996 on the legal protection of databases.

Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May
2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright
and related rights in
the information society.

Directive 2001/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
resale right for the benefit of the author of an original
work of art; Directive
2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the
enforcement of intellectual
property rights was the last EU directive transposed
in the area of copyright.

[67] Guideline No. 17
“Implement employment policies intended to achieve full employment,
improve quality and productivity at work,
and strengthen social and territorial
cohesion” and Guideline No. 19 “Ensure inclusive labour markets,
enhance work attractiveness,
and make work pay attractive for job-seekers,
including disadvantaged people and the inactive”.

[68] They include education and
vocational training programmes for the labour market, programmes supporting job
creation, second chance
programmes, etc.

[69] Social enterprise is a
legal entity or a natural person that gives employment to at least 30% of its
employees who were disadvantaged
job seekers, gives support and help to these
persons to find job in the open labour market, spends at least 30% of income
from its
business on job creation and on improvement of work conditions
annually, is entered in the registry of social enterprises.

[71] Improving Slovakia’s
competitiveness by enhancing human resources development has been of pivotal
importance in recent years.
The Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic
considers them the decisive factor in the field of poverty reduction. The
concept
of the 2008 Education, Training and Counselling Programme for Selected
Groups Interested in Starting Business supports this conclusion.
It is an
indirect assistance of free courses and training as well as counselling to
persons interested in starting a business. A
budget of SKK 4 million has been
approved and granted for this initiative of the Ministry of Economy by the
National Agency for the
Development of Small and Medium Enterprises. This
measure will be in place until the end of 2013.

[72] Amendment to Act No. 5/2004
Coll. on employment services and on amending and supplementing other relevant
acts as amended in effect
from 1 May 2008.

[73] Resolution of the
Government of the Slovak Republic No. č.1092 /2004 of 16 November 2004.

[74] Resolution of the
Government of the Slovak Republic No. č.635 of 24 August 2005.

[75] Improvement of work of
supporting profession through intervention teams, improvement of safety of women
at risk by PC technologies,
ensuring emergency shelter in the so-called
women’ homes, available and quality counselling and support services,
overall improvement
of the quality of social services performance while
respecting European standards in proposed measures.

[79] Zero grade of primary
schools is designed for children who reached six years of age on 1 September,
who are not mature for school
attendance, who come from socially disadvantaged
environment and because of social and language environment it can be believed
that
they would not be able to cope with the curriculum of the 1st
grade in one school-year.